Ill-lit streets reflect corporation’s street light management

The civic body has engaged four contractors to take care of the lights in five zones

A turn here or a turn there could be dangerous on the Sungam -Ukkadam Bypass Road in the city due to faulty street lights.

City residents are struggling to negotiate through dark stretches of city roads. The bulbs don’t glow or the fittings are missing or the Corporation has not attended to the faults - whatever may the reason, the city residents are finding it difficult to navigate the streets, more so at a time when they are full of potholes, says a Corporation officer.

The arterial roads are no different - stretches of the Sungam-Ukkadam Bypass Road, Trichy Road, Mettupalayam Road, Puliakulam Road and many others are dark.

Sources say that the reason for the poor street light maintenance has to do with the corporation not paying the maintenance contractors. The corporation has engaged four contractors who take care of the lights in the five zones.

The civic body owed them around ₹15 crore and the payments have been pending for over a year-and-a-half now.

With such a financial crunch, it would be difficult for them to engage vehicles and men or buy spares to repair the faulty lights, contractors whom The Hindu spoke to said.

By the contractors’ own admission, at least 20 per cent of the over 66,000 street lights do not glow. The corporation, however, says that only 2% of the lights do not glow.

The reason for bulbs not glowing could be many - faulty bulbs, damaged spares like chokes or problem with power supply.

On a regular basis, assistant engineers or junior engineers in the wards note down the faulty lights and report to the contractors concerned, who are supposed to repair those within a 24-hour period, the officials say.

Insiders say that this is what is in the rule book and does not happen in reality.

Sources familiar with the issue say the delayed payment also mean that the corporation is paying the contractors for even faulty lights as at the time of payment - six or more months after the submission of bills, the corporation will have no data to verify the contractors’ submission.

This, in effect, means that the corporation is paying the contractors for even faulty lights.

Corporation engineers say, on condition of anonymity, that they fine contractors on regular basis for lights that remain faulty for more than 24 hours and that has nothing to do with payment. Starting from ₹10 a tubelight for a day of fault, they charge the contractors for sodium vapour lamps, LED lights and high-mast lights as well.

Therefore, there is no question of paying for faulty lights, they maintain.