BENGALURU: The ambitious project announced by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) last year to replace all street lights in the city with light emitting diode (LED) bulbs will soon be a reality as the government is set to issue work orders to the winning bidder after tenders were finalised.
The BBMP had called for global tenders in the matter earlier this year to replace about 4.7 lakh street lights with LED bulbs in a bid to save more on power bills every year.
Bengaluru city has about 4,70,648 street lamps for which the BBMP is paying Rs12crore as the bill every month or around Rs 140 crore per year. However, according to official figures, the amount is much higher and around Rs 200 crore is paid every year to the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM), including costs of maintenance of these street lights.
The palike had conducted a feasibility survey of the proposed project in cooperation with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a wing of the World Bank.
According to BBMP, with this project, the BBMP will be saving at least Rs 3.5 crore in power bills every month.
The project is being implemented under the design-build-finance-operate (DBFO) model, and Palike will not invest a single paisa for its implementation. Moreover, the new lights would need no maintenance for seven years. Centralised control rooms would help the civic body monitor the LED street lamps. According to the BBMP, the project has already been approved by the government and the work order will be issued in a month to implement the same within three years provided for installation and operation. The project has been included in Smart City Project under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Manoj Kumar Meena, Special Commissioner (Projects), BBMP said, “The work order will be issued to the company in a month and we have included this project under the smart city project so that a special division is set up for looking after the project and to monitor it.”
Total streelights
in BBMP limits
4.70 lakh
Monthly power bills for BBMP
D12 crore
Yearly power costs
D140 crore
Yearly cost of power + maintenance:
D200 crore
Savings after project
D3.5 crore
per month
Total time for project implementation
3 years
Work orders to be issued in
1 month