The dynamic façade lighting of Rashtrapati Bhavan has been introduced to highlight its elegance besides making it memorable on the eve of the country’s 70th Republic Day. A total of 628 light fittings have been installed for illumination of the building. Lenses of narrow to the wide range are used on these fittings to spread light. A narrow beam lens has been used to highlight specific objects such as the lotus on the Jaipur Column and a wider beam lens to spread light over a larger area. Features that have been highlighted prominently in the lighting are the Jaipur Column, the dome of the main building, chattris, fountains at terrace and ground level, as well as loggia columns.
Inaugurated by The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, the new dynamic façade lighting will add to the glory of this historic building on special occasions like the Independence Day, the Republic Day and some national festivals. The high point of the entire network of new dynamic lighting is that it is using the state of the art RGB LED technology with 40kms of unified power. The data cabling has central computerised control with automated selection of colour combinations, with selection of timing, dimming and switching on and off facility, individual and combined control of light fittings etc. through Ethernet based controller.
This high-tech system that has been installed on the eve of 70th Indian Republic provides both volume and focus lighting to highlight the architectural features of the historical buildings, a fine blend of the traditional Indian and British architecture, further enhancing the grandeur, treating the visitors to a new feast of colours. The frontal façade, loggia, central dome, flag posts etc., are highlighted by the new lighting using narrow, medium and wide degree beam angles as required. The light fittings have external lenses to enable change of beam angles as per site requirement. It has an inherent capability and versatility for choosing different colour themes and schemes on special occasions.
The new dynamic façade lighting covers an area of 16,750sqm. Going by the report published on oneindia.com, the annual saving on account of new lighting of 21,450sqm. of façade area in respect of replacement, maintenance and operation cost will be Rs.86.40 lakhs. The life of the new LED light fittings is over one lakh burning hours, coming to about 25 years as against only 10,000 burning hours for the existing.
