Neither here nor there: Bengaluru's LED streetlighting plan fails to turn on

The BBMP’s way of managing streetlights has not only failed in changing existing lights to LEDs but also left vast parts of Bengaluru in darkness, creating a fertile ground for accidents and crimes.

It was in 2018 that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) came up with a plan to change all streetlights to energy-efficient LEDs. More than three years later, the project has moved only so far that just 2% of the lights have been changed.

The contract was awarded to Bangalore Streetlighting Private Limited (BSPL), a consortium of Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private Limited, SMC Infrastructure Private Limited and Samudra Electronics Systems Private Limited, under public-private partnership in 2018.

The task was cut out: convert all the 4.85 lakh sodium vapour streetlights into LEDs in 30 months, over five phases. One lakh streetlights were to be changed in each of the first four phases and the remaining 85,000 in the last phase. The BBMP had hoped to see at least two lakh lights changed to LEDs by 2021.

“Ideally, the third phase should have been in progress at present. But so far, not even 10% of the first phase has been completed,” a senior official said.

Although the tender was awarded in 2018, work on the ground began only in June 2020. Only 6,000 lights have been changed to date, another senior official said.

BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta warned of cancelling the contract if the progress does not improve substantially. “We issued several notices asking them to expedite the work. We also filed a complaint against them. Either they will improve the performance or we will cancel the contract and go ahead,” he said.

Cancelling the contract, however, wouldn’t be that easy. “The work has been going on and hasn’t stopped altogether. If we are to cancel the tender and call a fresh one, the procedure will be time-consuming and will delay the project further,” one of the officials quoted earlier said.

Asked about the delay, representatives of the consortium declined to comment.

As per the terms of the tender, the BBMP did not make any capital expenditure on the LED conversion. It instead paid the contractor 85% of the savings accrued through reduced electricity bills.

BBMP authorities recently completed a baseline survey of the wards covered in the second phase to determine the present electricity consumption.

In September, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had asked the BBMP to ensure that at least three lakh streetlights are converted to LED or else withdraw the tender.

The BBMP has been receiving a barrage of complaints about dysfunctional streetlights from many parts of the city. Residents regularly take to social media to highlight how broken streetlights are not being fixed despite repeated promises.

There are also complaints that the 6,000 streetlights converted to LEDs aren’t bright enough. Most of these lights are located in the outer wards.

Dasarahalli MLA, Manjunath R, said that barely 100 streetlights had been replaced in his constituency.

“The work started only recently and just 50-100 lights have been replaced. The new lights are not bright enough. The old lights were better,” he said.