The Hindu                 28.12.2013

Corporation to repair street lights in phased manner

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.