BANGALORE: Residential areas of the city which were poorly lit have reason to cheer. In all the eight zones of Bangalore, street lightning works will be taken up at a cost of Rs 38.03-core. However, the earlier, ambitious plan of lighting the streets with green energy has been shelved. Light Emitting Device (LED) bulbs and Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) lights will not be installed due to technical and cost reasons.

The new street lighting scheme has been approved by BBMP's ward level works standing committee. Work across wards will begin by February. Green energy proposal was dropped because: "LED lights are expensive and we lack the expertise to maintain them," according to committee Chairman L Srinivas.

Speaking to TOI, Srinivas said that experimentation with LED was turning out to be expensive for BBMP. "If a single bulb malfunctions, entire fittings have to be changed in case we install LED lights. It costs about Rs 63,000 to repair the network every time technical snags crop up. We have no expertise in this. Thus, after consultation with senior electrical engineers we have dropped the proposal of LED lights," he said.

Earlier there had been proposals in the budget to convert all the street lights in Nagapura and Sunkenahalli wards into LED. "The decision is left to the corporators. We do not suggest they go for LED lights," Srinivas added.

Due to lack of maintenance, the pilot project of LED lights in joint venture with BBMP and CREDEL failed. The main reason being the poor quality of electric wiring across the Richmond road flyover. BBMP changed all the lights into metal halide after media criticism about lack of street lights over and beneath the flyover.

But there are success stories with LED lights in Bangalore. Bavi Katte park in Jayanagar is a fine example of how a park can be lit with minimum energy consumption. In this park, lighting facility is totally automated and timers have been installed. The lights switch on from 4 to 6 am and 6 to 8 pm. Almost all the 50 lights in the park are CLF, while some are LED. They replaced the metal halide lights. An NGO, Kadamba which works on renewable sources of energy, installed them at the park after consultations with BESCOM and BBMP.

In an era when the entire world is focusing on energy efficient lighting, it's sad that BBMP's not ready to experiment with LED lights. Recently Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje had said that the government was keen on introducing LED lights not just in cities, but in rural pockets too.

Wise talk, but no help

On November 11, urban development minister S Suresh Kumar had said that Karnataka government has decided to introduce energy-efficient LED and CFL bulbs in offices and streets in seven city corporations. LED and CFL bulbs, besides consuming significantly less electricity, generally last five years compared to the conventional, incandescent ones whose life is around two years, the minister had said. However, Bangalore was not included in this as the BBMP comes under chief minister's portfolio.

Expert talk

"It is nothing but obnoxious. FKCCI has made several proposals to BBMP to make use of renewable energy and save power. BBMP uses 180 mega watts of power for every light used in the city. If LED, CFL lights are used, the power consumption can be reduced to 100 mega watts per night per light. Besides, there are hefty dues which corporation is yet to pay BESCOM. Our public representatives lack vision and this is a good example of it. If they find LED lights expensive, it can be taken up in only 100 wards on an experimental basis. If we say we lack expertise on this, the solution is to equip and update ourselves. When all international cities make use of LED lamps, we Bangaloreans end up using metal halide lights. This should not be tolerated, says J Crasta, former FKCCI chairperson.