Searching for a toilet need not be a worrisome experience in Kochi any more.
All that one has to do is to search it online and the details of toilets near your location will be available.
A project for online tagging of all the public toilets in the city, including the ones available in public places, has been initiated.
Moreover, the user will have the opportunity to rate the facility. A machine to mark the user response will be installed in each toilet.
The responses will directly go to the Central Ministry of Urban Development and feedback will come to the local body from the Ministry. Besides Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram has also been selected for the project.
The work has been completed in two divisions, Vathuruthy and Fort Kochi, by the local body. Tagging in all other divisions will be taken up shortly, says V. K. Minimol, Chairperson, Health Standing Committee of the local body.
Google map to be used
The toilets in all public places, namely shopping complexes, malls, restaurants, petrol pumps, bus stations, government offices, hospitals, toilets run by the Greater Cochin Development Authority, parks and railway stations will be covered under the project.
The details of the facilities including the ones for men and women, their locations and conditions will also be tagged using Google map.
The project is part of the Swachh Bharat Urban Mission campaign. The success of the project would bring additional points when the cleanliness of the city is evaluated, said Ms. Minimol.
The civic administrators have been viewing the scores of the Central assessment seriously as it had served as an index of overall cleanliness of the city. The civic administrators had come under severe criticism when Kochi slipped in the ranking.
Kochi slipped to the 271st position in the latest survey result that was released early this year. During the previous year, Kochi stood at the 51st position. It was the low number of public toilets in the city that was highlighted as the reason for the city going down in the ranking.