The city is being spruced up to make it appealing to visitors as evaluators from the Centre will soon descend on Kochi to rank it for cleanliness and hygiene.
A team of evaluators from the Union Ministry of Urban Development will be in Kochi for three days starting January 20 for rating the city.
The evaluation is part of a national competition organised by the ministry to find out the cleanest urban places.
This time, around 500 cities will be vying for top slots and most of them have a population of over one lakh.
During the competition, cities will be evaluated for parameters such as general cleanliness and achievements in the Open Defecation Free (ODF) campaigns.
Last year, Kochi was ranked 55, which came as a rude shock as it was rated the fifth cleanest city during the first edition of the national competition. The city administrators blamed it on some technical lapses.
The first evaluation of the cleanest cities was based on a survey though the second one was based on a contest held among nearly 120 cities.
Even while gearing up for the competition, the city administrators fear that the lack of preparedness in some crucial areas would adversely affect its ranking. Moreover, they fear that any dip in the city’s ranking would also be construed as the lapse on the part of the city administration.
Though the city lacks sweeping machines, workers have been directed to sweep the city centres twice daily. Important city centres would be thus spruced up, said V.K. Minimol, chairperson of the Health Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation.
She said the city might lose precious points when the ODF scores are considered. During an earlier estimate, it was found that 3,100 families needed toilets to declare the city as an ODF city. Later, it turned out that ineligible persons were included in the list. After screening, it was found out that only 1,950 persons were eligible for assistance and the city administrators extended the support to 147 persons.
The irregularity in the list would cast a shadow over the achievements of the local body in the segment. The city could not be declared an ODF city though some of the corporations had claimed the title, she said.
The ranking is expected to be out early next year.
