Bhubaneswar: The urban development authority has roped in Sulabh International to ensure sanitation with a special focus on making toilets at five major parks user friendly.

The parks selected are Biju Patnaik Park, Indira Gandhi Park, Madhusudan Das Park, Mahatma Gandhi Park and Buddha Jayanti Park. The development authority will invest Rs 4 lakh a month on cleanliness at these parks. Earlier, the civic body took care of cleanliness.

Development authority's chief horticulturist A.N. Dhar said entry points of the five parks, their lawns, pathways and areas near open air gyms were now a lot cleaner after cleaners removed dry leaves and other litters.

"Sulabh will take care of the toilets at these parks as they have expertise in this field. Visitors will now get clean toilets," said Dhar, adding that they planned to use the dry leaves as composting matter to generate organic manure at a later phase.

IThe development authority manages over 50 parks across the city with the selected five being the biggest.

At present, the parks do not have fixed cleaning staff members. The Biju Patnaik Park being the biggest, the litter is more and requires additional deployment compared to Mahatma Gandhi Park. As a result, the agency shuffles its resources according to day-to-day demand, sources said.

Dhar also urged visitors to stop taking non-biodegradable items such as plastic packets inside parks as it would add to the problems of the agency. "All should contribute to keep the green patches free from non-biodegradable items," he said.

Residents also welcomed the move to outsource the cleanliness work. "The parks are somewhat clean, but not up to the mark. There has to be periodic cleaning since because of the high footfall. The toilets need to be restored on a priority," said Sudipta Ghosh, a visitor to Madhusudan Das Park at Pokhariput.