Bengaluru to get 3 lakh LED streetlights by December: CM Bommai

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told the Legislative Assembly on Monday that three lakh LED streetlights will be installed in Bengaluru by December this year while admitting that the delay in this project had created “dark spots” in the city.

This project was approved in 2019 to replace all street lights with energy-efficient LEDs. The government entrusted this work to BSPL, a consortium of Shapoorji Pallonji, SMC Infrastructure and Samudra Electronics Systems under a public-private partnership.

BJP and Congress legislators from Bengaluru lent their voice to the lone JD(S) MLA in the city R Manjunath (Dasarahalli), who raised the project’s delay and said citizens of his constituency were endangered at night due to dysfunctional street lights.

“We have decided that three lakh LEDs will be installed by December 31. I have instructed officials to get the works done soon,” Bommai, who is also the Bengaluru City Development minister, said.

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As per the government’s pact, 4.85 lakh street lights in the city’s municipal limits are to be replaced with LEDs in five phases. The work was to have been done in 30 months. The first phase was to see one lakh LEDs, which Bommai has hiked to three lakh. Apparently, the project will lead to energy savings of up to 85%.

“For the last three years, constituencies have not received any grants for street lights citing the global tender for this LED project. You can ask any Bengaluru MLA. We were neither given money nor new streetlights,” BTM Layout MLA Ramalinga Reddy said, which Basavanagudi MLA LA Ravi Subramanya and Mahadevapura’s Arvind Limbavali seconded.

“There are 14 constituencies away from the core city area where new roads are being developed. There are no street lights,” Limbavali said.

Taking note of this, Bommai said two years of the project went into approvals and contracts. “The project started in 2018 and approval was given in February 2019. Agreement was signed in June 2020,” he said.

“This [delay] is wrong and it has created dark spots in the city. That’s why I’ve asked officials to take up all five phases at once. I will also issue instructions to the BBMP to do repairs and maintenance of existing street lights,” Bommai added.

Bommai also told the Assembly that the BBMP can levy a penalty of Rs 1 lakh every week on the contractor for delays and damages as per the agreement.

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