The Pune Municipal Corporation standing committee approved the lighting upgrade plan wherein 70,000 high pressure sodium vapor lights are to be replaced with LED streetlights by the Union Government approved private agency that would invest capital expenditure on the project and maintain the same for 12 years. The process of streetlight replacement is underway and nearly 40% have been replaced till date. The rest will be changed in a year’s time.
According to Shrikrishna Chaudhary, Superintendent Engineer of PMC, there are about 1,20,000 streetlights installed throughout the city that is located in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Of these, the PMC has already replaced nearly 50,000 conventional streetlights with LEDs at a cost of Rs. 500 million in different phases starting from 2011, while the remaining 70,000 streetlight installations will be commissioned to a private agency to which the city is experiencing difficulties in finding.
According to the estimate, revenues saved from installing LED lights would amount to about Rs. 140 million per year, based on the existing power tariff that would be paid by the PMC to the agency. The government body will not be paying directly to the firm, but will be using an ESCO model where the company is paid in the form of savings from reduced electricity expenses after installing the LED lights. In addition, the city government is generating additional revenue by leasing 20,000 streetlight poles for advertising, which will help the civic body to generate about Rs. 80 million as revenue.
