Corpn. unaware of 125 street lights for four years

Some of the non-functioning lamps repaired after councillor brings issue to Mayor’s notice

For over four years, the Kozhikode Corporation was unaware of the state of around 125 street lights in the city. If not for Valiyangadi councillor S.K. Aboobakker’s submission in the council meeting recently, these street lights might have remained orphaned for longer. The 125 sodium vapour lamps set up on major roads under the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development project in 2015 worked only for around a year and had been dead for the past four years. These lights, set up on much taller lamp posts with underground cables, are not part of the 56,000-odd lamps that are maintained by the Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS) as the corporation officials had neglected their existence. “These lights came to my notice when I checked for non-functioning street lights that are being maintained by KEONICS. They are distributed along Francis Road, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer Road, K.P.Kesava Menon Road, stadium and so on. After I gave a written complaint to the Mayor in the last council meeting, some of them were repaired. But more than 100 were yet to be in working condition", Mr.Aboobakker said.