Kolkata: Cost-effective LEDs to light up Salt Lake, Rajarhat streets

KOLKATA: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has set the ball rolling to replace streetlights in all the 41 wards of the corporation area, including in Salt Lake and Rajarhat, with smart LED lights. The project is part of the Green Cities Mission.

Civic officials said the state urban development department had given a go-ahead to the proposal. “The urban development department has in principle approved the proposal. The plan is to replace all sodium vapour lights in all the 41 wards of BMC area with LED lights,” said corporation’s MMiC (lighting and parks) Sudhir Saha.

There are about 26,000 sodium vapour lamp posts in Salt Lake and adjacent areas that will be replaced with LED lights. The project cost has been pegged at Rs 20 crore.

Officials said there were sodium streetlights of various watts, ranging from 45 to 190, depending on the requirement. According to rough estimates, the civic authorities pay a monthly electricity bill of around Rs 1.5 crore and about 60% of the bill amount may come down once LED lights are installed.

According to the plan, the LED installations will have a chip-based sensor and a timer. Civic officials will be able to monitor the lights from the Poura Bhavan control room. In case of a technical glitch or any other issue, the civic authorities will receive signals and will be able to identify every single streetlight.

The project, which was conceptualised a few years ago, got stuck after allegations of irregularities in the tendering process. It was revived at the last stock-taking meeting chaired by urban development minister Firhad Hakim with Bidhannagar councillors and other civic officials.