In a significant initiative aimed at reducing the financial burden of the local body and promoting renewable energy, a Coimbatore panchayat has installed 120 street lights that are being powered by solar energy.
The move has yielded immediate benefits. For, the Kurudampalayam Panchayat’s monthly power bill of Rs. 40 lakh has already come down by 40 per cent.
Tha. Murugan, Project Director of District Rural Development Agency, told The Hindu here on Thursday that this panchayat was the first local body in the district to adopt solar power in such a large extent. The State Government contributed half the total project cost of Rs. 1.86 crore with the local body raising the rest.
“We will now encourage other local bodies also to follow suit. Kurudampalayam Panchayat can be made as model for others to look up to,” he adds.
D. Ravi, panchayat president, said a total of eight high-power 72-watt lamps were installed at major intersections in the panchayat with the rest on Mettupalayam Road. They were installed on the median to light up both sides of the road.
These lights have modern LED cooler bulbs, which emit less heat and require less electricity. The battery back-ups will last for three days of 12 hours each, even if the sunlight is insufficient.
The Kurudampalayam Panchayat, which has 15 wards, has 13,000 households with a resident population of 30,143 and floating population of around 15,000.
Given the success of this pilot project, the local body plans to convert all its 2,500 street lights to solar power. In the first phase, it is going to install 50 solar lights with 30-watt bulbs each at public places such as intersections and cemetery. Several lights will also be installed at areas near forest which witnesses frequent elephant movement. “Upon completing the project, the EB bill of the panchayat will definitely go down by as much as 80 per cent,” says Mr. Ravi.
