LED street light scheme in Kochi facing headwinds

Kochi's LED street light project faces challenges due to faulty power cables, impacting lighting on arterial roads and pedestrian safety.

The Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) project to replace 40,400 street lights with LED lights in the Kochi Corporation area has run into rough weather on several roads, mainly due to problems associated with faulty power cables, it is learnt.

The ₹40-crore project was expected to less than halve the monthly energy expense of the Corporation. Already, many arterial and side roads that were either ill-lit or had dysfunctional lights are much better lit now, thanks to the installation of sleek LED lights that emit more than double the lumen of light. The 150-lumen street lights on arterial roads have five-star energy rating.

But there are teething problems in the form of snapped power cables and run-down or missing electric posts, which is quite evident, including on the Edappally-Aroor bypass, sources said. Many lights on the Chakkaraparambu-Vyttila stretch of the corridor and other roads are dysfunctional, as a result.

Mayor M. Anilkumar attributed the snapping of cables in many areas in the corridor to (trenching works done as part of) road median beautification works taken up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on the NH bypass (as part of the G-20 sherpas meeting at Kumarakom). “The Kochi Corporation took up the issue many times with the NHAI through the District Collector as the onus of restoring the cables is fully on the NHAI. We could have restored the cables through CSML, but that is not the proper way. We will approach the Kerala High Court if the NHAI failed to do the restoration work,” the Mayor said.

Police officials flagged the absence of proper lighting on the NH bypass as among the reasons for accidents at night, especially involving pedestrians. There is also concern over anti-social elements thriving under the cover of darkness, mainly on service roads and atop the five foot-overbridges on the corridor where the NHAI has not installed lights.

The upkeep of lights was covered under a five-year operation-cum-maintenance contract. The firm that was entrusted with the task will also have to replace the lights, if needed, during this time span.