JOIN USIrresponsibility comes to light!
Shortage of electricity is one of the major problems that the City faces — especially during those times of the year when the state is declared to be drought-hit.
While there are many little ways in which individuals tend to waste this resource — forgetting to turn off lights, for instance — it’s appalling to see this same tendency being carried to a larger scale; specifically, when streetlights remain switched on during the day.
According to the figures provided by the BBMP, there are 4, 50,000 streetlights in the City, which consume 68 megawatts of power every month. The cost of this sums up to a whopping Rs eight crore per month.
BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) has received several complaints from the public about not switching off the streetlights in the morning hours.
P Mannivan, managing director, BESCOM, in an official letter to the BBMP, has written, “Of late, we have been receiving several complaints from the public and media, that streetlights are kept switched on even during day time.
This has led the public at large to believe BESCOM is in charge of looking after streetlight controls and BESCOM is negligent in this aspect which is otherwise.
We have, in fact, made Chief Engineer (Ele), BMAZ, BESCOM as a nodal officer to coordinate with the concerned BBMP officers to see that the streetlight control switches are fixed to all the circuits, and also ensure that they are in working condition. This would not only save us lot of energy but also help the BBMP in reducing energy billing.”
Saraswathi, a resident of Banaswadi, says, “I have often observed streetlights working during the day time. There is a streetlight in my lane that has been on for the last three days. When I complain, they switch it off — but the problem again resurfaces after a couple of days.”
All the streetlights are automatically switched on and off by the BBMP. But sometimes, when the system fails, they take a lot of time to fix it. “There is a streetlight near my house that has been continuously on for almost a week. We complained to the BBMP; they have not yet fixed it,” says Chandana, a resident of Jayanagar.
Some areas in the City are using solar streetlights. According to the figures given by the BESCOM, out of 584 streetlights that are using solar energy, only 100 of them are functioning.
However, the BBMP claims to spend Rs 35 crore on the maintenance of streetlights every year.
When the BBMP was asked to give the exact figure of electricity wastage caused by the streetlights, Niranjan, special commissioner BBMP, says, “We have noticed that streetlights are left on during the day time. We admit that there is electricity wastage.
But, we don’t have the exact figure right now. The Environment Survey Laboratory (ESL) has conducted a survey about electricity wastage caused by streetlights in the City. The survey is yet to be reported. Only after that will we get to know the exact figures.”