Kochi to get more public toilets; mayor seeks status report on existing facilities

In response, the mayor also said the daily maintenance of toilets will be taken care of once the project is executed.

KOCHI: With inadequate public toilet facilities being a major issue in the city, Kochi Mayor M Anilkumar on Monday directed the corporation’s town planning committee to prepare a report on the status of the toilets under its jurisdiction within 20 days.“Once the report is submitted, a decision will be taken on the type of toilet (bio-toilet, container toilet, mobile toilet) to be installed under the ‘Take a Break’ project,” the mayor said.The development follows concerns raised by councillors during the council meeting.

“Despite the district collector issuing an order to allocate Rs15 lakh to renovate or construct toilets, no action has been taken,” said UDF’s Deepthi Mary Varghese. She also pointed out that it took more than one-and-a-half-years for the corporation authorities to present the project in the council for approval. The councillors also raised the issue of public toilets remaining closed for more than a year at the corporation’s zonal office at Vyttila.

In response, the mayor also said the daily maintenance of toilets will be taken care of once the project is executed.“A monthly review meeting will be held under the leadership of the mayor, town planning committee and councillors C D Bindu and Deepti to evaluate the functioning of the public toilets,” Anilkumar said.

Regarding the approval of the revised North-South Corridor project connecting the two railways stations in the city, the council decided to discuss the project after a detailed presentation on the project by the authorities. The project report has been prepared by the students of the Government Engineering College, Thrissur, with the help of AFD and UMTC.

The mayor also highlighted that, for the past six years, the local body has not received any income from advertisement hoardings.He assigned the executive engineer to check on the government order on the collection fee regarding hoardings and directed the finance committee to submit a report before the next council.