Bhubaneswar, April 28: The administration has undertaken grand plans for the town centre district with an aim to make it open defecation free.

It has decided to declare all 24 slums along Janpath on the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District open defecation free on Independence Day. In a bid to achieve this milestone, the municipal corporation, along with other non-governmental organisations, has expedited the process to construct individual household latrines and sensitise citizens on the effects of open defecation.

Vineel Krishna, chief executive of the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, gave a hint about the development on his Twitter handle.

The civic body has already started various outreach programmes at the slums through the United Nations Population Fund, its partner in the project. "We have been conducting community programmes and sensitising citizens on opting for healthy habits," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena. He said they had expedited process to distribute work orders for construction of individual latrines and community toilets.

"We are focusing on Janpath as it is part of the area-based development under the smart city project. We will make this stretch free from open defecation and later the entire city by 2018," said Jena.

The town centre district along Janpath , work on which will be completed by June# It will also construct 10 community-cum-public toilets for slum-dwellers. and use the toilets instead of polluting the environment. We request the administration to take care of their maintenance," said Adarsh Sahoo, a Colony Basti resident.