The Times of India                08.10.2013

Nashik Municipal Corporation to repair defunct streetlights

NASHIK: The Nashik Municipal Corporation on Monday said that all defunct solar streetlights across the city will be repaired at the earliest.

Over 80 per cent of the solar streetlights put up across the city remain defunct over the past one year.

The NMC had put up 67 solar streetlights across the city IN 2008. Now, only 13 of these are working, while the rest of the 54 streetlights have been defunct for a year now due to lack of maintenance and repair. Most of these lights have been put up in gardens and in municipal projects like the Dadasaheb Phalke Memorial and Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan.

An official from the electricity department of the NMC told TOI that these streetlights were put up through a private agency. While they functioned well for the first three or four years, the concerned contractor stopped maintenance and repair and did not supply spare parts. "We had blacklisted the contractor two years back. We will soon repair all the solar streetlights and make them functional at the earliest. A private agency will be appointed to repair these lights," the NMC official said.

A proposal in this connection will be tabled at the General Body Meeting (GBM) of the NMC for approval, the official said.

The civic body is also installing solar packs at Nashik Road and the Satpur divisional offices of the NMC at a cost of Rs 1.01 crore through a private firm. "We will also install solar packs at other divisional offices of the NMC if this project runs successfully. We are also making all traffic signals operational on solar energy. Presently, only three of total 28 traffic signals run on solar energy," the official said.