‘With paltry rent, Loo cafes minting profits’

HYDERABAD: City activists questioned the functioning of the civic authority’s celebrated Loo Cafe project and the price at which plots of land have been given out to a private company for the luxury washrooms.

Each luxury washroom under the Loo Cafe project is built over 320 square feet of GHMC land. The washrooms have special arrangements like ramps and napkin-vending machines and do not charge people for using the loos. According to the GHMC’s plan, the outlets will generate revenue from the cafes attached to the washrooms. GHMC has leased out the land required for the project to Ixora FM, at the tender cost of Rs 4.5 crore across 66 locations for 15 years. Ixora is paying Rs 100 per month as rent for every loo cafe. The rent will not change for the next 15 years as per the contract.

Activists in the city say that for the same amount of commercial space in the city, monthly rent of no less than Rs 25,000 has to be shelled out normally. While the company is paying next to nothing for the loo cafe, activists allege, the cafes are kept open late into the night, flouting all norms.

“Moreover, the loo is not being kept ‘open’ for everyone. Only those who take services of the cafe are being allowed. Why did the government give out the plots of land at such cheap prices to a profit-making organisation,” asked Harish Daga, a city-based activist.