The wait for well-lit streets might finally be over in many areas as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has floated a short-term tender for installation of 53,732 streetlights.
There are over 4.85 lakh streetlights in the city, but there still are many areas that continue to be in darkness, especially those in the outer zones. The tender, according to senior civic officials, will be finalised in about 15 days.
This development comes after the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai chaired a meeting with ministers and city MLAs and reviewed development work taken up by the BBMP recently. The civic body had also just scrapped the contract with the consortium led by Sharpoorji Pallonji Co. for the ambitious LED streetlight project that envisaged replacement of all sodium vapour lamps with LED lights.
In an internal circular, BBMP’s chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta had directed the civic officials to float a short-term tender to install new streetlights on ward roads, arterial and sub-arterial roads across the eight zones wherever required. In some places, the poles are in place, but there are no lights, while in some places, both poles and lights need to be installed.
Following this direction, the BBMP floated a short-term tender. Senior civic officials said that the new 53,732 streetlights would illuminate 511.59 km of roads across the city. This is going to cost an estimated ₹85.5 crore.
Under the first phase of the LED streetlight project, streetlights in three wards in Dasarahalli, Rajarajeshwarinagar and Bommanahalli zones and Vasanthnagar ward in East zone had to be replaced by April 17, 2021. However, the work was not completed despite the deadline expiring and several reminders from the BBMP, sources said.
Since the project was underway (when the contract was still not cancelled), BBMP had not taken up installation of streetlights in the city, neither had any funds been earmarked in the budget for at least three years for the same, sources added. “Since this is a short-term tender, it will be finalised and work orders issued to the contractors by the end of the month,” civic officials claimed.
