Kochi roads lack proper streetlights

Despite spending about Rs 27 crore a year on energy costs and maintenance costs of streetlights, many of the roads in the city lack proper streetlights.

Lack of appropriate monitoring and absence of staff to manage problems related to street lighting is the significant issue that leads to poor streetlight systems in the city. The corporation shells out Rs 17 crore as energy costs every year. The yearly maintenance cost would come from approximately Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore. For rendering infrastructure for streetlights, it spends about Rs 7 crore yearly. Yet, there aren’t proper streetlights in many parts of the city, as per the former councillor C K Peter.

He told the media that Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd (KSEB) is making a rough estimate on the energy usage for streetlights rather than taking an actual meter reading. In 2013, the KSEB and Kochi corporation began a joint venture (JV) to replace all the current streetlights with LED lights. Yet, the project is still unfinished. Of the over one lakh streetlights in the city, less than 15,000 have been replaced with LED lights.

At the same time, the corporation officials told the media that they are trying their utmost to guarantee proper streetlights in the city. When they assumed power a year back, there weren’t streetlights on many of the roads comprising the Metro corridor. They held several rounds of meetings with the KSEB authorities.

Yet, they are trying to render proper streetlights all over the city, as per mayor M Anilkumar. He told the media that to ensure a proper maintenance system, they have decided to charge an agency for the purpose. They have floated an expression of interest for the same and two firms have evinced interest. They are going forward with the procedures.

They have to replace all the current streetlights with LED lights to save a large amount being spent on energy costs. They would be asking for the help of Cochin Smart Mission Ltd (CSML) for the objective.

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