Cuttack: Silver City Cuttack is on the verge of creating history as it nears to successfully achieve total LED Street Lighting. The Cuttack Municipal Corporation, which started the ambitious project to shift to LED street lighting in the city in the last quarter of 2017, is in the last leg of completion with just about 5000 more street lights to be converted to the energy efficient lights.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had launched the ambitious project in December 2017 to convert the traditional sodium vapour lights into LED lights. The Retrofitting of LED Street Lighting Project original plan aimed to put up about 16000 LED Street Lights in the 59 Wards of Cuttack.
With new areas being included in the project, the CMC has increased the number of Street Lights to be installed with the state of the art LED lights to 40,900 – more than double of the original plan, in the last three years. A number of new areas in and around the city have also been added to be illuminated by the civic body. Of these, the CMC has already installed and commissioned 35951lights and about 5000 more remain to be installed. The retrofitting works were hampered during the first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic and now again gained momentum. Most of the city’s roads including lanes and bylanes today have the LEDs. The remaining lights of the newly developing areas and uncovered areas such as Sector 13, CDA, Jagatpur, etc., are to be completed once the government gives the go ahead.
The Smart LED Street Lights have helped the civic body in saving considerably in terms of maintenance expenses and electricity bills. The LEDs need minimal maintenance unlike the traditional sodium vapor lights which consumed more energy. The transformation has helped minimise accidents during the night and also aided the police in keeping an eye on anti socials.
The LED Street Lighting Project, added with the city beautification plans along with new roads and parks, is giving a spectacular view to the citizens of Cuttack. The Ring Road, CDA, Canal Road, Bali Jatra area, High Court, Medical College areas today have a new look with the cool LED street lights.
Speaking to newsroomodisha.com on the Smart LED Street Light project, Ananya Das, Commissioner, CMC says, “It is an ongoing process. We have totally phased out the traditional sodium lights. New areas are being added every now and then. We expect to complete the retrofitting of the remaining 5000 lights in the near future. We also have a proper mechanism that looks into the complaints received from the citizens in this regard. People can come to us with their requirements and inform us the locality and areas that need to be looked into.”