The Central Bus Stand in the city, which has come to be associated with the foul odour emanating from open urinals, is getting a whiff of fresh air over the past few days as the Tiruchi Corporation has started trying out a new technology, probiotic treatment to fight the odour.
Simultaneously, the Corporation has also built a series of cubicles and toilets, both free and pay and use ones, to prevent people urinating in public places inside the bus stand complex. Dearth of clean public toilets and the reluctance of people to use the available ones has been a major problem plaguing the bus stand for several years now.
Living up to its promise of improving the situation, the Corporation has put several free urinals, for men and women, and some of them are waterless toilets. The waterless toilets, as the name suggests, do not require flushing after every use. The toilets would be cleaned once in a day and would be directly connected to underground drains.
“Such toilets are already in use in a few places in the country and we are trying it out at the Central Bus Stand to start with. Based on its success, we will install similar urinals across the city,” Corporation Commissioner K.Veera Raghava Rao told The Hindu on Sunday.
The Corporation had earmarked about Rs.81.95 lakhs for improving sanitation inside the bus stand, including Rs.43.02 lakhs for building toilets and the rest for other works such as construction of drains.
“We have provided 40 seats each for men and women. These apart, four pay and use toilets are also available inside the bus stand,” Mr.Rao said.
Close on the heels of providing the toilets, the Corporation has decided to crack the whip and started imposing penalty of Rs.100 on persons found urinating in open places inside the bus stand. The Corporation rules already provide for the imposing of the fine, he said.
New technology
The civic body has also started experimenting with probiotic treatment to check the foul odour emanating from open urinals and toilets inside the bus stand. “This is an eco-friendly technology under which ammonia eating micro-bacteria is used to control the odour,” Mr.Rao said. Accordingly, a liquid spray is used three to four times a day inside the bus stand. The technology could be used to control foul odour from garbage also, Mr.Rao said.
Depending on the success of the measures, the Corporation has planned to replicate them in other parts of the city. The civic body has already unveiled a perspective plan to check open defecation in the city by building toilets and cubicles across the city.
