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.