KMC to take up illumination of city's dark spots

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), in association with Kolkata Police, has taken up the responsibility of identifying and illuminating the dark spots in the city to make it safer for citizens, particularly women.

A total of Rs 1 crore will be involved in the entire project, out of which Rs 32 lakh has already been disbursed and is expected to reach the civic body soon.

The project is a part of Nirbhaya fund, a corpus of Rs 100 crore set up by the erstwhile UPA government for empowerment, safety and security of women across the country in memory of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim.

"We have already started the job of identifying the dark spots with assistance from Kolkata Police and primarily, it has been observed that there are a number of pockets in Ballygunge and Kasba police station area that need to be better illuminated.

"The fund will come to us through the state Secretariat, Nabanna, and work of augmentation of lighting arrangements in these two areas will be taken up as soon as we receive the same," a senior official of the KMC's Lighting department said.

The official added that the stretches where work will be taken up in the first phase include Garcha Road, Bondel Road, Palm Avenue, Broad Street, Gurusaday Road, Ballygunge Circular Road etc.

The other places in the city to follow include areas in and around Rabindra Sarobar, Maidan, Jadavpur, Bansdroni, parts of Burrabazar, parts of Behala-Thakurpukur. The police is also delving in the crime records like snatching, burglary, molestation for locating these dark spots.

Experts believe that streets that are not properly lit up are more crime prone in comparison to those that have bright lights.