The city corporation has decided to resume installation of streetlights, thanks to the mounting pressure from the public.The work was stopped after the civic body received complaints questioning the quality of streetlights being installed. During the recent council meeting, city mayor Kalpana Anand Kumar had assured that there would not be any compromise on the quality of the lights.
The civic body had conducted a gap analysis last year on the need for streetlights in the city as well as the added areas of the corporation, as several newly-developed localities lacked street illumination. The corporation found that it would need 10,000 streetlights and sent a proposal to the government, which gave clearance only for 7,701 streetlights at a cost of 20.97 crore.
Subsequently, the installation work started earlier this year. The east zone was sanctioned the highest of 2,009 streetlights, followed by the west zone (1,971), south zone (1,161) and the north zone (1,109). The project also comprises installation of 600-odd new lamp posts in residential areas. The installation work was stopped three months ago, but only to be resumed now.
Corporation officials are, however, concerned about the expenses in getting approvals from the electricity department. Corporation commissioner Sivaguru Prabhakaran said, “Seeking connections for every street is expensive, as an application costs around Rs3,000 to Rs4,000. Hence, we have made a complete survey of the streets that require lights and sought bulk connections from the Tangedco.”
