No sweets, but LED bulbs for NDMC staff this Holi

This Holi, employees of the New Delhi Municipal Council will get LED lights instead of sweets as the civic agency is planning to cut down on energy consumption in its area — in line with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to save energy.

The council had spent Rs 94 lakh in distributing sweets among its employees last year, an RTI inquiry had revealed.

The budget would be the same this year and may go up to Rs 1 crore in distributing LED lights among its employees. Those on the temporary muster roll of the council will also be gifted LEDs.

Each LED of 7 watt will give the same amount of brightness as an incandescent bulb of 60 watt. Acquired in bulk, each bulb is likely to cost around Rs 150. The council is planning to hand over the project to a manufacturer based in India.

Currently, the NDMC has around 12,000 employees. “Each employee will be given three bulbs considering our budget will be the same as last year. This will help cover a considerable number of households graduate into LED lights which will bring down the domestic power consumption soon,” said Jalaj Shrivastava, Chairperson, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

The council has issued circulars regarding the same among its employees.
The council is also planning to halve the domestic energy consumption by the next financial year. Olympic medal winner Sushil Kumar and mountaineer Santosh Yadav will be the ambassadors in promoting the use of LED bulbs in the NDMC area.
Currently, the total domestic energy consumption is 66 million units.

This will come down to 33 million units if the council effectively promotes the energy conservation scheme among all households in its area.  

“We are planning to run a parallel scheme in which people can purchase LED bulbs in the NDMC area and pay in the successive months. Every month they can pay an additional amount of Rs 5 along with their electricity bills,” said Shrivastava.

As per the Light Emitting Diode (LED) Scheme launched by the Prime Minister, domestic consumers will be provided bulbs at an initial payment of Rs 10 each. The recovery will be done in 12 months from their electricity bills.

Meanwhile, the council is also planning to replace the existing lights in its schools, hospitals and buildings in the next four months. An expression of interest has been already floated to replace around four crore bulbs.

The NDMC, however, will need more time in replacing the existing street lighting poles with LED lights. The cost for retrofitting each pole will come up to Rs 10,000.
“There are 20,500 streetlights in the area. It will take us at least six months for retrofitting the street poles,” said Shrivastava.