Cuttack, Aug. 27: The municipal corporation has set a target to come up with at least 60 community toilets by March as it aims to move forward with the Swachh Bharat Mission.

It will inaugurate 20 community toilets at Malgodown, Nua Nima Sahi, Dagarpada, Sikharpur and Pattapol on Local Self Government Day on August 31.

Swachh Bharat Mission, the Centre's mega sanitation programme, aims to ensure access to sanitation facilities, including toilets, solid and liquid waste disposal systems and urban cleanliness, to every person by 2019.

According to Swachh Bharat parameters, any urban local body can declare its wards open defecation-free only if it is successful in providing public conveniences at 75 per cent of its areas. It also mandates the presence of toilets within 500m of slum settlements.

"We have made a humble beginning. At least 20 community toilets will be inaugurated on August 31, while another 40 that are under construction will be ready for use by the end of March," municipal commissioner Bikash Mohapatra told The Telegraph today.

"Fifty per cent of these toilets will be hybrid complexes constituting five, seven and ten toilet seats with urinals," Mohapatra said.

Both slum-dwellers and the general public will have access to the hybrid toilets. While the public will have to pay to use the facilities, slum-dwellers will be provided with a monthly pass. Anyone can use the facilities for free between 8pm and 8am.

The state government has signed an agreement with Sulabh International Social Service Organisation for construction and maintenance of hybrid toilet complexes in nine cities across Odisha. The complexes, which will have a combined capacity of 5,957 seats, will be set up in Bhubaneswar (1,691 seats), Cuttack (863 seats), Berhampur (505 seats), Sambalpur (871 seats), Rourkela (814 seats), Baripada (290 seats), Balasore (257 seats), Bhadrak (327 seats) and Puri (333 seats). The complexes will come up under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme.

"We plan to implement the Swachh Bharat Mission in a phased manner to fulfil the norms to achieve the 100 per cent open defecation-free tag," Mohapatra said.

"Though funds for the community and public toilets are not a constraint, availability of land is," he said. Official sources said around Rs 5 crore was available under different schemes to set up toilets.

Slum clusters, especially those located close to the riverbanks, have no space for community toilets.

Bidanasi resident Satyajit Roy said: "The municipal corporation should consider placing mobile toilets near the riverbanks to stop people from defecating in the open."

There are only 67 toilets, including 22 pay-and-use ones, in different wards in the municipal corporation area.

"We are conducting a survey with the help of community organisers, sanitary inspectors, Anganwadi workers and tax collectors to identify households that lack toilets," Ranjan Kumar Biswal, chairman of the Cuttack Municipal Corporations' standing committee for sanitation, said.

"We are encouraging individual households that depend on open defecation to set up toilets. The civic body will provide Rs 8,000 for each toilet," Biswal said.