Govt looks to implement intelligent lighting system in all municipalities

Kolkata: In a significant stride to reduce carbon emission that contributes to air pollution, the state Municipal Affairs department is planning to implement an intelligent lighting system in all municipalities across the state.

The move will ensure that the intensity of light can be controlled depending on the volume of traffic movement in the respective municipal areas.

The scheme of intelligent lighting comes under the Green City Mission that was launched three years ago. As per estimates of the department, in 125 municipalities across the state there are 7,00,000 street lights, out of which 5,00,000 lights have already been replaced with LED lights, a move which has reduced electricity consumption by 60 percent.

"We will completely replace all the lights with LED units. We are also moving towards an intelligent lighting system where the intensity of light will depend on the timing and the volume of traffic on the roads. The lights will glow 100 percent when there will be reasonably heavy traffic or pedestrian movement and will gradually glow with less intensity with the decrease of the flow. We are contemplating how to integrate all street lights into one central server, so that we can regulate them through a shared technology," said Subrata Gupta, Principal Secretary of the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department.

The department is hopeful of saving 30 percent of the electricity cost with this intelligent lighting system.

It may be mentioned that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has already began the job of replacing all high-pressure sodium vapour lamp fittings (HPSV) and Metal Halide Fittings with LED lights, to bring down the level of carbon emission and at the same time, reduce consumption of electricity.

Lights in the civic body's offices, health units, schools, compactor stations, markets, borough offices, ward health units, pumping stations and crematoriums will all have LED lights.

In another significant stride to reduce pollution, the department will be replacing 1,161 pumps in 39 towns. "The water extracting capacity of the pumps have gone down due to use for very long durations and the electricity bill is also increasing by leaps and bounds while operating these pumps. The replacement as per our estimates will save 330 lakh electrical energy in a year, whose value will be around Rs 150 crore," a senior official of the department said.