Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC) has entered in to an agreement with the Delhi-based Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) recently to replace the conventional streetlights with energy efficient light emitting diodes (LED). The replacement will be completed in seven-and-a-half months. Under the agreement, apart from replacing the conventional streetlights with that of LEDs, EESL will also upgrade the related infrastructure by installing new poles and manage the wire mazes wherever required. The installation of LEDs will be carried out in accordance with the guidelines of National Lighting Board.
Once the project is over, VMC is expected to save Rs 18 crore in around eight years. The contract also mentions that no less than 95% streetlights will remain functional at any point of time. If there is any difference in the figure, then there is a provision of financial penalty which can be imposed on the company. The agreement also entails that the cost of installation of the new energy-efficient lights will be borne by EESL and later, to repay this cost, savings will be used. The agreement was signed by the city’s mayor Ramgopal Mohley and managing director of EESL Saurabh Kumar in presence of municipal commissioner Shri Hari Pratap Shahi. The mayor said that with the replacement of old sodium bulbs with LEDs, the Central government’s project of energy conservation will be implemented in the city. This will save electricity and also help in conservation of environment with decrease in carbon emissions.
It is also important to mention that according to a report published in TOI, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s LED project failed to take off in his parliamentary constituency. There was replacement of only 1,500 of over 36,000 streetlights. Union minister of state for power and coal Piyush Goyal had dedicated the high-mast LED lighting system at Assi Ghat in June last year and had announced that old bright yellow sodium vapour lamps would be replaced by LEDs along the ghats within three months.
