The Take-a-Break project for travellers and tourists is a model for the nation, said Minister for Local Self-government M.V. Govindan on Tuesday. He was virtually inaugurating 100 ‘Take-a-Break’ toilet complexes completed as part of the project’s second phase by including it in the Chief Minister’s 100-day action plan.
Mr. Govindan said the maintenance of the toilet complexes would be ensured with the support of the Kudumbashree and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
He said the complexes, set up along roads and in densely populated areas, had modern facilities and could be used by children and women safely and with the confidence that they were clean. Refreshment centres with coffee shops had been completed under local self-government institutions in the second phase, he said.
In the first phase, 100 toilet complexes were inaugurated. Construction of 524 more toilet complexes was under way. A lot of progress had been achieved in the area of cleanliness and waste management under the Haritha Kerala Mission and the Suchitwa Mission. The new hygienic public toilets will add to the achievement, said the Minister.
In Thiruvananthapuram, 13 Take-a-Break facilities were inaugurated. These are in Neyyattinkara municiplaity, Kollayil, Kallikad, Poovar, Perunkadavila, Kottukal, Panavoor, Malayinkeezhu, Madavoor, Karumkulam, Ottasekharamangalam and Vembayam. While seven of them have coffee shops, others have refreshment rooms or feeding rooms or sanitary napkin incinerators.
Nava Kerala Mission coordinator T.N. Seema presided over the event. Local Self-government Additional Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan and Secretary Saurabh Jain and Suchitwa Mission Executive Director Mir Mohammed Ali were among those present.
