For over four years, the Kozhikode Corporation was unaware of the state of around 125 street lights in the city. If not for Valiyangadi councillor S.K. Aboobakker’s submission in the council meeting recently, these street lights might have remained orphaned for longer.
The 125 sodium vapour lamps set up on major roads under the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development project in 2015 worked only for around a year and had been dead for the past four years. These lights, set up on much taller lamp posts with underground cables, are not part of the 56,000-odd lamps that are maintained by the Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS) as the corporation officials had neglected their existence.
“These lights came to my notice when I checked for non-functioning street lights that are being maintained by KEONICS. They are distributed along Francis Road, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer Road, K.P.Kesava Menon Road, stadium and so on. After I gave a written complaint to the Mayor in the last council meeting, some of them were repaired. But more than 100 were yet to be in working condition", Mr.Aboobakker said.
He said that Valiyangadi, the commercial sector of the city, was in utter darkness after dusk as none of the street lights were working. Similarly, AG Road, from Hotel Rahmath to 5th railway gate was also in darkness. However, there had been complaints that these lamps, the ones working, did not shed much light and that they needed to be converted into LED lamps for better lighting.
Meanwhile, Public Works Standing Committee chairman of the corporation, P.C.Rajan, said that efforts were being made to hand over these lights to KEONICS for maintenance.
