Responding to frequent complaints that faulty street lights are not being repaired at the pace they ought to be, and that there are too many lights that do not flow, the Coimbatore Corporation has undertaken corrective steps.

The Mayor, S.M. Velusamy, announced at the last Council meeting that the operation and maintenance contractor number all the lamp posts in the city for better street light management. In keeping with the direction, the contractor was on the verge of completing the process.

Commissioner T.K. Ponnusamy told The Hindu that the contractor was in the process of completing the numbering process, which was going on in the core city area comprising 60 wards. There are over 37,000 street lights.

In numbering the street lights, the contractor would mention the zone, the ward and then the lamp post number for all types of street lights, including the high masts. Once the process was over, registers would be prepared to be given to the Corporation officials. The contractor would also have a copy. The person appointed ward-wise for street light monitoring would undertake routine check every evening and report the number and location of faulty lights to both the Corporation and the contractor. The former would then ensure that the contractor attended to the lights within 48 hours, as mandated in the contract.

Mr. Ponnusamy said that the person monitoring street light would report the precise lamp post number for repairing the faulty light. This would make the job of the zonal coordinators and contractor easy.

The Corporation had named senior officials as zonal coordinators to oversee street light maintenance.

Earlier, the Corporation and the contractor had a convoluted process of identifying the faulty lights, which was based on energy consumption at meters at every location.

Mr. Ponnusamy also said that the Corporation had increased the fine amount for the contractor for the delay in repairing faulty lights.

As for the added areas, he said that the lights were still under the guarantee period as most of them were newly installed.