Bhubaneswar: The civic body is determined to meet the government's deadline to make the city open defecation free by October 2 by increasing the number of public and community toilets and individual household latrines.

Its efforts will see an almost two-fold increase in the number of toilets in the city with a budgetary allocation of Rs 10.10 crore. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, having already expedited construction of hybrid toilets, has now turned its focus on replicating the efforts for public and community toilets and household latrines.

The proposal to construct the new facilities was approved by the housing and urban development department. The civic body will spend Rs 4.95 crore to build household latrines and another Rs 5.15 crore for public and community toilets.

"Our officials have been asked to survey houses in slums that do not have toilets. The houses that have space will be allotted funds to construct latrines, while the civic body will facilitate community toilets for those that don't," said a civic official.

He said special focus would be given to public toilets. "According to the Centre's guidelines, we planning to provide public toilets every 500 metres. We introduced such facilities in core areas of the city, but our focus this time is on other areas."

The municipal corporation had inked a deal with Sulabh International last July for the construction of about 150 hybrid toilets here. Data suggests that 52 such toilets have already been opened so far. Besides, 48 toilets also have been constructed under Project Samman.

However, the data for the construction of individual household latrines is grim. "We allotted funds to households for individual latrines. While they did construct the structure, they use it for other purposes. We are going to be strict on such violations," said another civic official.

Mayor Ananta Naryan Jena said he had made it clear to his officials that the October 2 deadline was final to get the open-defecation free status.