Update on Sammaan Milestones
Project Sammaan is a multi-partner, long-term, and large-scale implementation project. At any time there are at least 7 to 8 different partners working simultaneously on several milestones. Due to this, it is very crucial to plan the activities well in advance to ensure these achievements happen in a timely manner. This helps to measure the project progress tangibly and also smoothes coordination among the partners.
To ensure efficient and effective planning, the project is divided into 3 different batches:
- Batch 1 – 27 Public Toilets in Bhubaneswar
- Batch 2 – 32 Community Toilets in Cuttack
- Batch 3 – 60 Community Toilets in Bhubaneswar
Each batch is further divided broadly into 5 milestones:
- Site identification, surveys and approvals
- Preparation of hardware and software designs and completion of tender documents
- Identification of construction vendor through government approved tendering process
- Construction of toilets at specified locations
- Identification of an O&M contractor and implementation of an O&M model
Until now, one of the significant milestones achieved by the project team has been the identification of all 160 toilet sites in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Both cities are highly-populated meaning land is a scarce resource. It is difficult to find large, new sites with clear ownership titles that meet architectural, research, and government-stipulated criteria. Looking back, land acquisition and site identification was one of the most challenging milestones achieved by the project team.
Along with land acquisition, preparing innovative designs for community and public toilets despite several constraints is another significant milestone achieved by the team. There are several ground level challenges for designing an effective toilet system, such as the lack of an existing sewage network, unavailability of a continuous water supply, and lack of availability of sufficient land.
The design team worked effectively to ensure that the designs are responsive to ground challenges and developed a system that functions in extremely difficult conditions. Along with this, the team had to put extra effort in order to translate innovative designs into tender documents as required by the government.
The next significant milestone to be achieved is the completion of the tendering process and identification of construction vendor for Public and Community Toilets. This task will be led by Arkitechno Consultants and will be supported by Anagram Architects and CTRAN. An output of this milestone will be the identification of a contractor who will build the facilities as per the design specifications within the specified time.