Bhubaneswar, May 10: Poor performance has robbed the municipal corporation of an assignment to construct toilets in the city.

The housing and urban development department, which held a review meeting on the status of construction of toilets in the city, has decided to assign the job to the project management unit of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) cell of the state government as the corporation had failed to execute the project properly.

Henceforth, the SBM cell will co-ordinate the construction of public and community toilets in the city under Project Samman.

"The public and community toilet construction under Project Samman was taken up in 2012, but the work done so far has been disappointing. The construction was slow because of administrative reasons. Hence, it was decided to assign the task to the SBM cell," said an official of the housing and urban development department.

The review of the project showed that the civic body had been assigned the task to build 27 public and 26 community toilets in collaboration with the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) as construction partner and US-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the funding partner.

It has been found that of the 27 public toilets, work on only one had been completed and handed over to the corporation, while 24 others were still under construction. The corporation was yet to hand over two sites to the NBCC for construction of toilets. Similarly, of the 26 community toilets, nine are under construction, while work on 11 toilets is yet to take off. The site for other six has not been identified or handed over to NBCC by the civic body.

The only toilet that the authorities have completed also remains unusable. Located on Janata Maidan, it has no guards and remains locked since its inauguration last December. The Telegraph, on January 10, had reported about the poor progress of work on toilets under Project Samman.

Sources said the Janata Maidan was chosen as a site to build a toilet because public events, fairs and other community activities were frequently held there. But the only toilet in the maidan is hard to identify.

"The structure is difficult to identify as it has no display boards or any other signages that indicates that it is a toilet. Moreover, the toilet remains locked," said a Jyotikant Beura, a street vendor.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said the construction of toilets would be completed soon. "Our focus is to ensure proper sanitation and hygiene to the citizens. We are not only focusing on public toilets, but also on community toilets. We will co-ordinate with the government to commission the project soon," said Jena.