The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is conducting a feasibility study for installing solar-powered street lights on the 16-km-long Container Road that links Bolgatty Island with Kalamassery.
The agency had over a year ago agreed to install street lights on the stretch following widespread demand from local residents, motorists, and the police in the wake of fatal accidents and crimes committed under the cover of darkness.
The NHAI does not generally install street lights, as it is considered the responsibility of the local body through which a highway passes. It was decided to install lights on Container Road as a special case owing to concerted demand from various quarters. The feasibility study will assess whether lights relying exclusively on solar power can be installed on the highway which passes mostly along the backwaters. The agency has sought the views of firms which have expertise in the sector, official sources said.
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The conventional mode of sourcing power from the grid will be chosen if solar power is not found feasible and the cost of upkeep is high, they added.
Highways need light which has at least 150 lumens intensity and light up a substantial portion of the road which is used by fast-moving vehicles, said S. Gopakumar, architect and president of Better Kochi Response Group (BKRG), an NGO. “Such high-frequency lights might be tough to source from solar panels installed atop the lights on medians. This might prompt the need to have lights on either side of the stretch too. Even then, storing the battery beneath each light and the cost of maintaining the infra might be on the higher side,” he added.
“A sound option being adopted worldwide is to create a solar park in open space, sell the solar power to the KSEB and source conventional power from it for street lights. This can ensure sustainable and efficient lighting of the entire NH corridor,” he said.
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