Defunct street lights driving denizens up the wall in Visakhapatnam

GVMC to take action against agency responsible for maintaining street lights if they fail to fix them by end of month.

Defunct street lights continue to be a source of bother for denizens in many areas, with the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) failing to address the vexatious issue for months on end.

With complaints pouring in from the public as well as corporators from various wards, the GVMC authorities are finally preparing to pull up the agency responsible for maintaining the street lights, asking them to fix the lights by the end of the month or face action.

However, there is some cynicism surrounding the civic body’s ‘deadline’, as two similar ultimatums to the agency proved to be of little use.

Many colonies in the city remain in the dark either due to dim lighting or defunct street lights. At every council meeting, a number of corporators, including those from the ruling party, lambast the civic body over the poor maintenance of the street lights. The recent council meeting held two weeks ago was no different, with corporators expressing frustration at the GVMC’s inability to resolve the issue.

At the recent meeting, YSRCP corporator K. Swathi (Ward 9) spoke about the situation in her ward. “It is dangerous to walk along the road in some colonies for fear of being bitten by snakes or insects in the darkness,” she said.

Ward 48 corporator G. Kavitha (BJP) said that a number of streets in the hillock areas of her ward do not have street lights, due to which elderly people are wary of stepping out after dark.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) corporator and the party’s floor leader Peela Srinivasa Rao said that after repeated complaints with the Sachivalayam, a team from the agency arrived in his colony and repaired some street lights, but failed to install new ones wherever sought by the public.