Starting this Wednesday, visitors passing by Central Vista at Rajpath will be in for a treat as the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) will unveil a dynamic façade lighting with 16 million colour patterns and themes.
Until now, the famed Raisina Hill was lit up only on eight select days in a year and a few hours every night. Moving from static to dynamic, the new lighting will now be on display every night from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. In a break from tradition, it will be inaugurated by a few senior support staff of the Home Ministry, rather than VIPs, at 6.30 a.m.
With inherent dimming facility, the electrical load will be 25% during 7-7.30 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and 50% for the rest of the night. The entire network of new dynamic lighting uses state-of-the-art RGB LED technology. It has 40 km of unified power and data cabling with central computerised control and automated selection of colour combinations.
Highlights
“The system is capable of providing both volume and focus lighting to highlight the architectural features of the historical buildings. The frontal façade, loggia, central dome, flag posts, etc., will be highlighted by the new lighting using narrow, medium and wide degree beam angles as required,” a statement from Urban Development Ministry said. There will be special lighting for special occasions like Independence Day and Republic Day. The area of lighting will also be increased. The present lighting covers an area of 16,750 sq metres and now it will cover 21, 450 sq metres. Even though the area has been increased, the CPWD claims that the new lighting will save ₹86.40 lakh.
“The life of the new LED light fittings is over one lakh burning hours, coming to about 25 years as against only 10,000 burning hours for the existing ones,” a CPWD official said.
All new light fittings are dust, vermin and moisture-proof with outdoor weather protection of the highest order (IP-66) with robust design. It also conforms to the most stringent international regulatory framework of environmental and technical parameters (RoHS, UL and CE).
Under the present lighting system, 50,000 three watt LED bulbs in strings nailed on the walls of the iconic buildings are being used for special lighting on eight occasions in a year. There are also 170 lamps of 400 MW/250 MW metal halide and sodium vapour for façade lighting and 72 LED lights for security lighting. The new dynamic lighting system with 800 fittings will do away with all of these.
