The Prime Minister may declare India open defecation free on October 2 and observe it as Swachhta Divas. In this regard, DNA checks the state of public toilets in the city.

The first route, covered on Friday, encompasses roughly 20 kilometres of the Western Expressway, where more than 20 lakh vehicles ply every day. There was only one urinal on the stretch from Dahisar to Borivali, that too only for men.

The Dahisar to Goregaon stretch had 10 public toilets, but the reporters were hard-pressed to spot even one clean, well-maintained urinal or public toilet from Goregaon to Bandra. While two to three toilets on the entire stretch were clean enough to use, the team couldn’t even enter other loos owing to the repelling stench.

What was surprising was that many commuters are not even aware of the presence of sulabh sauchalayas, while accessibility is another hurdle they face.