Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe CALCUTTA, India, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Politicians in Calcutta, India, have spent $66,848 for a luxurious public bathhouse modeled on the Sydney Opera House. The Times of London reported Saturday that the grandest and most expensive public lavatory in India, due to open in February, will offer customers a dressing room with wall-to-wall mirrors, a Turkish bath, ceramic tiling and marble floors. Advertisement The majority of the millions of people in India depend on these facilities as 80-percent of rural families to not have the basic amenities in their homes or schools, the newspaper said. Pradeep Chowdhury is the engineer on the project and the person responsible for the idea of patterning the building on Australia's landmark Sydney Opera House. "The architecture is fantastic," he told the Times. Users will shell out 5 rupees (10 cents)instead of the 1 rupee (2 cents) that is the average for more pedestrian public bathhouses. Still, the fancy facility has drawn criticism for being "an ill-considered extravagance."
