Around 60,000 street lights installed across the city are reportedly continuing to operate on winter timing settings despite the ongoing summer season, leading to large-scale electricity wastage and financial loss to the civic body. The street lights are switching on around 5.30 pm and remaining operational till nearly 7 am even though sunrise occurs earlier and sunset takes place later during summer months.
Complainant PC Sharma alleged that lights, which should normally function for nearly 10 hours, are currently operating for around 13-and-a-half hours daily.
Sharma claimed that the prolonged operation is resulting in wastage of nearly 16,000 units of electricity every day, causing an estimated financial burden of around Rs 1.27 lakh daily and nearly Rs 38.17 lakh every month on the government exchequer.
He further stated that different categories of street lights ranging from 90 watts to 1000 watts have been installed on roads and intersections across the city. According to him, high-mast towers installed at major junctions use powerful 1000-watt floodlights, leading to substantial power consumption when operated unnecessarily during daylight hours.
“The administration’s negligence is resulting in large-scale wastage of public money as electricity continues to be consumed unnecessarily on illuminated roads even after sunrise,” Sharma alleged.
The street lights are at present being maintained by Samundra Light Company. The company’s contract expired around two months ago, but its operational responsibilities were extended temporarily for six months till finalisation of a fresh tender process.
Responding to the issue, Superintending Engineer Sandeep Singh stated the problem occurred due to timer settings not being updated in the software system. He said corrective measures would be taken shortly and the timings would be reset according to summer requirements.
Singh added that although the contract of the earlier company had expired, the same agency was continuing maintenance work under the extended arrangement. He further said a fresh tender for management of the city’s street lighting system had already been floated and a new company was likely to be finalised soon.
