There is no record of 1.61 lakh sodium streetlights, which were replaced with LED lights and fittings in Lucknow since 2017.

There is a possibility of sodium lights and fittings worth more than Rs 50 crore going missing, said officials who did not want to be named.

Additional municipal commissioner Amit Kumar said he joined after all the fittings were replaced, so he had no knowledge about the replaced lights and fittings.

“I will surely inquire where these fittings are kept and how many of them are there in the store,” he said.

The Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) was entrusted with the task of replacing all streetlights with LEDs after a government order on August 23, 2017.

A 40 watt fitting with lamp cost Rs 1,549; 250 watt sodium fitting with lamp cost Rs 4,550; a 250 watt sodium reflector with lamp cost Rs 6,550 and a 400 watt sodium reflector with lamp cost around Rs 7,200 per piece.

According to insiders, the sodium fittings replaced with LEDs were supposed to be kept in the store room of Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC). After that, they were to be auctioned or installed in rural pockets or destroyed in the presence of officials.

But officials don’t know where these fittings, bulbs and lamps are kept and none of them is ready to talk about the issue.

In all, 10,024 100 watt bulb fittings, 67,051 40 watt tube fittings, 3,647 sodium fittings of 70 watts, 65,686 sodium fittings of 250 watts, 3,009 fittings of 400 watts sodium bulbs, 1,614 fittings of 250 watts sodium reflectors, 890 sodium fittings of 400 watts high mast, 6,433 sodium high mast reflectors of 250 watts, 1,232 high mast reflectors of 400 watts, 40 fittings of 150 watts high mast, 489 fittings of 250 watts lamps, 1,462 fittings of CFL lamps, 26 fittings of fountains, 187 fittings of submersibles were removed by EESL.

In 2017, there was a streetlight scam of Rs 18 crore in LMC. In June, EESL had given 8,591 LED lights (costing Rs 22,000 each) to the civic body and these were to be installed before June 21 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to visit Lucknow on World Yoga Day.

However, the LMC failed to illuminate the routes with LED lights despite orders from the PMO and the CM’s office. Besides, EESL gave 2,500 more LED lights to the LMC to be installed on major routes of the city after the state cabinet’s directive to light up Lucknow with LED lights.

The matter came to fore when EESL wrote to the LMC in October, seeking utilisation certificate of 10,991 LED street lights. The then chief engineer of the LMC’s streetlights department Mohanji Pandey had no clue about the lights.

Had these lights been installed, the power bill of Rs 84 crore per annum would have come down to just Rs 40 crore.

However, the then municipal commissioner Udairaj Singh ordered an inquiry into the matter.

The then additional municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar was made the head of inquiry committee. But the inquiry committee never out with any result.

First Published: Apr 01, 2019 15:15 IST