Dysfunctional street lights abound in Kochi despite drive to install LED lights

In Kochi, dysfunctional street lights pose safety hazards, prompting complaints and calls for urgent repairs from officials and residents.

Innumerable road corridors in Kochi continue to have dysfunctional street lights or remain without provision for such lights, despite efforts to replace 40,400 of them with LED lamps.

The problem is acute, especially at junctions like Vyttila where the Public Works department (PWD) that built flyovers did not install lights beneath the lengthy spans beneath them. Thus, motorists and pedestrians who cross such junctions have a harrowing time making their way through ill-lit or dark corridors. Interestingly, advertisement boards lit with bright lights and installed atop Kochi metro pillars and lamp posts are functional in most places.

Faced with the alleged delay in repairing a few hundred street lights beneath the Kochi metro viaduct and also on either side of the road in the Palarivattom-Edappally highway corridor, Uma Thomas, MLA, sent a complaint to District Collector N.S.K. Umesh on Saturday, seeking urgent measures to repair them and to thus ensure the safety of motorists and pedestrians.

It has been several months since the lights in the busy four-lane corridor became dysfunctional. Little action was taken, although the issue was taken up with the Kochi Corporation and other agencies. This has in turn become a safety hazard for road users, traders, and residents of various localities. Making matters worse, huge advertisement boards with very bright lights and those that block the view of motorists have been erected (mainly atop metro pillars), in violation of the Kerala State Policy on Outdoor Advertising. This makes the dark corridor even more accident-prone, she said in her complaint.

These aspects have led to members of the public expressing concern at the “apathy” of the Kochi Corporation and the other agencies concerned and the “undue influence” of firms which have erected unusually bright and big advertisement boards. “I would be forced to embark on an agitation and also to approach the court if there is any further delay in repairing street lights on the stretch,” Ms. Thomas said.

Apart from Ernakulam District Residents Associations’ Apex Council (EDRAAC), NGOs like the Vyttila Vikasana Samithi have been frequently taking up the issue of ill-lit road corridors and junctions, with the civic agencies concerned. Even recently, the Samithi highlighted the perils that motorists, pedestrians, and others faced at Vyttila Junction and on roads that led to the junction, which is said to be the biggest in Kerala, due to dysfunctional street lights.

“It is shocking that most of the street lights and highmast lights have not been functioning on the Palarivattom-Vyttila NH 66 bypass, while they are non-existent beneath the Vyttila flyover through which vehicles cross the junction,” said T.N. Pratapan, secretary of the Samithi.