Kochi: The Kochi Corporation, district administration, tourism department and Kerala Travel Mart will jointly launch a clean destination project to make the tourist centres in the city garbage-free and beautiful.
Initially, the scheme, to be launched on World Environment Day on Friday, will be implemented in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry on a pilot basis. Part of the state-level initiative to make all important tourism spots clean and waste-free, it will be executed on a public-private- partnership basis.
Mayor Tony Chammany told reporters here on Thursday that Fort Kochi would be made a garden city through the initiative, which is part of the ‘Visit Kerala’ campaign by the Kerala Tourism Department.
“Dust bins, cameras, waste collection and disposal arrangements, toilets and sign boards will be set up in Vasco de Gama Square and Fort Kochi beach to ensure safety and hygiene. Now, 20 cleaning workers have been engaged by the Fort Kochi Heritage Conservation Society in the area. The corporation will employ 15 more workers and also a lorry exclusively for waste removal. The civic body has to spend Rs 2.49 lakh per month for this,” he said.
The beautification of public spaces in Fort Kochi is also on the cards which will be carried out with the support of hotels and traders in the area.
The corporation has already completed the construction of a toilet complex in Fort Kochi. The pay and use facility has eight toilets for women and four for men. The corporation also has plans to set up a police aid post and a room for life guards in the area.
“The cleaning drive is not a one-day programme. We want to take it up as a sustainable imitative as lack of cleanliness is a major factor that has hit tourism,” said National Tourism
Advisory Committee member Jose Dominic. Mr Johny Abraham George, KTM president, and Mr T. K. Ashraf, corporation health standing committee chairman, also attended the press meet.
