Not Smart! Only TWO out of nearly FIFTY LED Lights working on Kankanady-Nandigudda Road
Mangaluru : With the expansion of urban areas, the City Corporations were spending large amount of their revenue on energy for providing services such as streetlights, water supply, etc. Many of the streetlights in the urban areas had a mix of mercury Vapor lamps, metal halide lamps, sodium vapor lamps, incandescent lamps, CFI-s etc., which involved significant power charges payable to MESCOM out of MCC resources. When they found out that Light Emitting Diode (LBD) lamps were proving to be more energy efficient and hence the latest trend was to move towards installation of LED street lamps in the urban areas.
Many cities in India had already moved forward on this initiative, and so Mangaluru under Smart City Development Project also wanted replacement of existing conventional lamps such as MV/ SV lamps/ tube-lights/ metal halide etc., to LED lamps in the City, so that MCC can realize tremendous benefits by way of energy savings. With the objective of providing sustainable and energy efficient smart street lighting in the City, LED lights were installed long the newly constructed Kankanady to Jeppu/Koti-Chennaya Circle-Nandigudda stretch of the road. And this project was approved under smart city project and the project looked all bright and glowing for a few days after the LED lights were installed.
But if you take a drive/ride or Walk along this stretch of road from Kankanady (Fr Muller Hospital) until Nandigudda you will be surprised to see that out of nearly 50 LED lights, fitted on the short poles ( Central Dancing LED) with changing coloured lights (call them ‘Disco Lights), ONLY 2 are in working condition- one in front of Fr Muller Hospital, and the other one in front of ICICI Bank (Valencia)- rest are totally OFF. One is only flickering. Even some of bulbs are totally broken. So, after a year or so, if only TWO LED/Dancing Lights are working, don’t you think it’s a drastic waste of tax-payers money or the money sanctioned by the government for the Smart City project.
So this report is for the kind consideration of the authorities who is at the helm of this project- may it be Mangaluru City Corporation or Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL)- please take necessary action, and rectify the problem at the earliest. This report is also for the kind consideration of MLC Ivan D’souza, who resides on this stretch of the road, near Fatima Retreat House-Valencia, to raise this issue with the concerned people.
