Within months of installation, many of the the much-hyped LED lights in South Delhi area have become defunct. According to officials of South Delhi Municipal Corporation, around 30 to 35 per cent of the lights have become non-functional in absence of proper maintenance.
In the meeting of the House on Friday, the Corporation Councillors complained that the company did not install LED lights at over 16,000 spots identified in the survey besides less efficient and low wattage LED lights were installed which are not sufficient to illuminate the roads. The LED lights were installed under ‘Efficient lighting programme’ of the Central Government.
According to the report, the company, ESSL, was awarded tender to install LED lights in the SDMC area before December-end but it failed to meet deadline following which it was extended till March 31. The report claimed that even after three-and-a-half months of the deadline, the company has been able to replace 90 per cent lights from traditional street lights. The worst part is that out of these installed lights, nearly 35 lights are not operational and even many of them were non-functional from the very first day of installation.
“The Corporation awarded tender to such a company which has failed to provide maintenance of the lights. Now, instead of saving energy and cutting Corporation’s electricity bills, it has turned out to be a failed progrmamme of the BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation. The company had to replace 200W conventional lights with the similar capacity of LED lights but no replacement was made so far. In place of 80W lights, the company installed 40W lights and instead of 75W lights, 20W lights were installed. Besides this, nearly 16,000 poles were left unattended and now the area around these poles have converted into dark spots,” said Farhad Suri, Leader of Opposition.
Leader of the House Shubhash Arya, however, accepted poor maintenance and irregularity in the programme but assured to improve the situation without delay. He claimed that after reports of poor implementation of the project, the civic body has decided not to pay a single penny to the company and ask to maintain the lights properly. “As per agreement, the SDMC has to make payment a year after full implementation of the project. Since we have a report of ill-maintenance of the existing lights and irregularity in replacement from conventional to LED lighting, we have decided to check
the facts. Once we will go through a detailed inspection, we will decide our next step,” said Arya.