City to be illuminated with LED lights soon

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 18

City roads are set to be illuminated with energy-efficient LED lights. The process of replacing streetlights with LED lights has reached its final stage.

The Municipal Corporation had opened technical and financial bids of the project a few days ago. Three companies have shown interest in it. The civic body has forwarded the case of the lowest bidder for approval to a committee of the Local Bodies Department headed by the Chief Secretary.

Besides, the case of the lowest bidder has also been sent to Mayor Balwant Rai Nath for getting approval from the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC), the meeting of which is likely to be held next month. It is expected that the Chief Secretary may approve the rate within 15 days.

The tender for the project had been hanging fire for the past many years. Earlier in February this year, the tender was floated but in the pre-bid, many bidders demanded a change in the tender norms. Later, it was delayed due to the model code of conduct for the General elections

The MC had floated a tender for installation of 23,254 LED streetlights at an estimated cost of Rs 14.07 crore.

Under the project, the civic body has planned to install SIM cards in LED lights that will provide real-time information about their functioning. For the purpose, a dedicated monitoring room will also be formed. A faulty streetlight will be detected in the monitoring room and snags will be resolved at the earliest. At present, the MC waits for a complaint regarding the non-working of a streetlight. Thereafter, the repair work starts.

Last year too, the MC had floated a tender for installing LED streetlights, but failed to get any bidder.

Members of the MC sub-committee had visited Mohali to study the LED lights installed there and after coming back, they gave their consent for the project.

Initially, a survey was conducted by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). The company had said it would replace the streetlights with LEDs. But now, the MC has planned to install new streetlights with LED bulbs on its own.

The civic body had even installed LED lights on a trial basis on Mall Road. Now, it is gearing up to upgrade the lighting system across the city.