Filed Under · Unofficial
Public Toilets, Theoretically
Facilities whose working hours remain a well-kept secret. Tiling chosen, evidently, for its resale value elsewhere.
Ranked by Notoriety
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Swachh Bharat Mission toilets (unbuilt)
A CAG audit found Delhi's municipal corporations failed to construct a single toilet under the Swachh Bharat Mission despite ₹40+ crore sitting unused in bank accounts for over 30 months, while roughly 350,000 households lacked toilets.
GHMC Public Toilets
GHMC has spent crores maintaining public toilets that turned out to be non-functional or non-existent: of a claimed 2,260 to 5,299 toilet seats, only around 400 were actually functional. In 2021 GHMC installed 2,260 temporary toilets that were reportedly "not opened for public use and were used for erecting banners," with many lacking water and sewerage connections.
Dharamsala Smart City E-Toilets: Locked and Unused for Years
E-toilets installed near Martyrs Park in 2015 were later shifted to Gandhi Park but never received a permanent power connection at the new site. After a woman became trapped inside one and had to be rescued with iron rods, the toilets were locked and left unused for roughly three years with no maintenance from the Municipal Corporation.
Locked public toilets
Public toilets built under the Swachh Bharat Mission in parts of Guwahati remain permanently locked, defeating the mission's sanitation goals.
Civil Lines "Smart" Toilet: Not So Smart After All
A "smart" public toilet inaugurated by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation had its glass panel damaged within two months of opening. A study by five architecture students and three faculty advisors catalogued 19 design and safety flaws, including undersized ventilation, slippery tiles despite anti-slip alternatives being available, an overflowing overhead tank, an exposed electrical meter box, and non-standard plumbing using flexible pipes instead of bottle traps.
Locked/Unusable Public Toilets (Singara Chennai 2.0)
Greater Chennai Corporation spent crores building or upgrading community toilet complexes, but numerous completed units sit permanently locked and never opened, while others suffer inadequate water supply and severe filth that render them unusable.
Bengaluru Public Toilets
A 2026 citizen-led audit of 142 public toilets across Bengaluru found 26% non-functional, only 6 rated "very clean," and 58% with persistent foul odour, despite the city having roughly just one public toilet for every 30,000 residents. The findings renewed calls for urgent sanitation infrastructure and management reforms.
Locked and Unusable Public Toilets
More than ten public toilets built with Swachh Bharat and government grant money have remained locked for years, some with broken windows and drainage problems; a separate 2026 civic survey found toilets missing in 30 wards and closed in nine more.