The Hindu 28.12.2013

Corporation to repair street lights in phased manner

Main, arterial roads such as the Mettupalayam Road in the city will soon have street lights. In places where there are no poles, the Corporation will also erect poles.- PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

Coimbatore Corporation will soon begin the process of revamping the street lighting system in the old city area that compromises 60 wards.

Sometime in October this year, Mayor S.M. Velusamy helped the passage of a resolution in the Corporation Council that said that in the next four – five years the Corporation would replace the street lights with energy efficient ones, provide new lights wherever there was none and also erect poles and fix lights where necessary.

The Mayor’s move followed complaints from councillors’ who said that bad roads and absence of street lights compromised roads users’ safety to a great extent.

Based on the Mayor-initiated resolution, the Corporation officials began initiating the steps necessary to revamp the street lighting system in that they had decided to spend at least Rs. 5 crore a year over the next four – five years by taking up 15 wards at a time.

The 60 wards have more than 44,000 street lights.

Sources in the Corporation said that the discussion was on whether to choose 15 wards or go about lighting important, arterial roads like Mettupalayam Road, Sathyamangalam Road, Pollachi Road, Palakkad Road, Maruthamalai Road and Kalapatti Road.

Reason

The reason for choosing the roads was that the road-managing agency – National Highways or State Highways – had improved the roads and developed the medians, which would pave way for erecting poles and fixing lights.

The sources said that the debate was also on allocating around Rs. 5 crore for the project as the Corporation would have to arrange for the finances from its General Fund and that too in the last quarter of the financial year.

Another reason for the shortage of funds was that the Corporation had taken up a number of road works in the city by contributing a portion of the funds to complement the funds sanctioned by the State Government under various grants.

The sources said that notwithstanding the opinions and debates on implementing the project, the Corporation would soon start the project by carrying out a survey to study the energy efficiency of the street lights. Based on the data, it would float tenders.

Meanwhile, the Corporation’s project to revamp the street lighting system in the added areas – 40 wards – was going as planned and that the energy auditor engaged for the purpose of studying the present system had completed the work.