Bhopal
and Indore also get online locator facility; to be extended to other cities in
the country
Shri
Venkaiah Naidu also launches Smart Toilets and Reverse Vending Machine in NDMC
area
504
cities and towns become Open Defecation Free in 2016 as Swachh Bharat Mission
gained momentum during 2016, says Shri Naidu
Minister
names lead performing States in toilet building in urban areas
New
Delhi Municipal Council gets ODF Certificate
With
construction of individual and public and community toilets in urban areas
getting on to fast track, Swachh Bharat Mission(Urban) today moved to a new
level of improving ‘ease of access to public toilets’. Minister of Urban
Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu today launched ‘Google Maps Toilet Locator
App’ to enable people to locate the nearest public toilet for use in five
cities in National Capital Region and Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Shri Naidu
said this facility now available in Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and
Noida and the two cities of Madhya Pradesh would help in addressing open
urination and open defecation.
Using the
key word ‘Swachh Public Toilet’, users can access 5,162 public toilets located
near malls, hospitals, bus and railway stations, fuel stations, metro stations
and public and community toilet complexes in the five cities in NCR and 703 in
Bhopal and 411 in Indore. The App also gives information about the nature of
the toilet seat available, free or pay for use, working hours etc. This
facility will be extended to other cities in due course. Ministry of Urban
Development has partnered with Google to enable this service.
Shri
Venakaiah Naidu also launched free to use ‘Smart Toilets’ set up by the New
Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) under PPP model at National Gallery of Art on
Shershah Road, opposite Haryana Bhawan on Copernicus Marg and near Tolstoy Marg
Metro Station. Each such complex has one WC toilet seat and four urinals for
gents, one WC each for women and differently abled, Water ATM, Bank ATM and
Digital Health Centres.
One
‘Reverse Vendor Machine’ set up by NDMC at Gate No.2, Palika Market, New Delhi was
also launched today. When a plastic bottle is dropped in to this machines, it
gives a receipt of credit of up to one rupee. NDMC is setting up 20 such
machines which help in preventing littering of plastic bottles.
Speaking
about the progress of Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas since its launch in
October,2014, Shri Naidu said the mission picked up momentum during 2016 with
502 cities and towns including New Delhi Municipal Council declaring themselves
‘Open Defecation Free’ during this year and most of these claims verified
independently. Another 237 cities and towns are set to become ODF by March next
year. He said that during this year, the Mission in urban areas got to halfway
mark in toilet construction against the mission targets.
Against the
target of construction of 66 lakh individual household toilets, 27,81,883 such
toilets have already been built and construction of another 21,43,222 is in
progress. While over five lakh community and public toilet seats are to be built, 1.07 lakh seats have already been built so far
and another 1.30 lakh toilet seats are under construction. Regarding Solid
Waste Management, about 40,000 of the total 81,000 urban wards in the country
have reported 100@ door-to-door collection and transportation of such waste.
21.50% of total solid waste being generated in urban areas is being processed
scientifically.
Shri Naidu
named Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim who have declared all cities and towns as
ODF besides Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana, Jharkhand, Karnataka besides the
UTs of Chandigarh and Puducherry as lead performers in toilet construction
having met more than 75% of physical targets.
The
Minister further informed that 95 Waste to Compost plants are currently
functional in the country with an annual production of compost of 2.88 lakh
tonnes. These include 17 in Karnataka, 16 in Gujarat, 15 in Maharashtra, 9 in
Tamil Nadu and 8 in Uttar Pradesh.
Delhi is
producing the highest quantity of compost of 3,000 MT/month followed by
UP-2,900 MT/month, Gujarat-2,500 MT/month and Karnataka-1,600 MT/month.
Another 313
Waste to Compost plants are under revival and upgradation with a total
production capacity of 22 lakh tonnes per year.
Seven Waste
to Energy plants are operational in the country including 3 in Delhi, 2 in
Maharashtra and one each in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana producing a total of 88.40
MW of electricity form municipal solid waste. Another 53 plants are under
construction or tendering with a production capacity of 405.30 MW of power. 177
more such plants are under consideration with a production capacity of 1,138
MW. The maximum number of upcoming plants are in Madhya Pradesh-60, Andhra
Pradesh-54 and Tamil Nadu-27.
Shri
Venkaiah Naidu presented ‘Swachhata Certificates’ 12 cities and towns who have
become ODF recently and their claims verified independently by the Quality
Council of India. These are; Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Nellore in Andhra
Pradesh, Thanesar and Sirsa in Haryana, NDMC, Suchindram and Mailadi in Tamil
Nadu and Khopoli, Kolhapur and Nandurbar in Maharashtra.
AAR/KM