The city will soon see ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, literally.
Bringing the city’s fight with darkness to an end, the City Corporation
has floated tenders for Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) for the
maintenance and upkeep of the streetlights in its ambit.

The major
reason which refrained the civic body from calling the AMC so far was
the huge area of the Corporation, which has 100 wards. Hence, when the
AMC is called, the Corporation area is being classified into 30
divisions based on the KSEB sections.

The city has, in total,
76,646 streetlights in all these sections, as per statistics. Peroorkada
section has the maximum of 6,209 lamps, while Kaniyapuram has the least
with 98 streetlamps. 

 “The City Corporation will supply the
required materials and the contractors will carry out the maintenance.
Works will start after the contract is approved,” said B Ananda Raju,
Corporation engineer-in-charge.

According to a 2011 government
circular, it is the responsibility of the Corporation to carry out the
maintenance of streetlamps, though the work had been done by the KSEB
till September this year.

An all-party delegation led by Mayor K
Chandrika had, in August this year, submitted a memorandum to
Electricity Minister Aryadan Muhammed demanding that the KSEB should
take up the work. Following this, considering the Onam season, the KSEB
did the maintenance of the streetlamps, but the stalemate continued over
a longtime solution.

Subsequently, the Corporation chose the
option of depositing money with the KSEB so that at the rate prescribed
by the Board, contract labourers engaged by the Board will carry out the
maintenance activities, taking a cue from the Kozhikode Corporation,
where calling the annual maintenance contracts had not brought about the
desired results.

The matter also kicked up a row in the
Corporation council meeting, as the absence of streetlights resulted in
an increase in the number of accidents as well as that of the stray dog
menace here.

KSEB, after holding a discussion, then placed certain
conditions before the Corporation, saying that the quality of materials
to be brought by the civic body could not be ascertained. Following
which, the Corporation has now moved to inviting tenders for the annual
maintenance contract.