BHUBANESWAR: The State Cabinet in its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Secretariat here on Friday cleared decks for replacement of 2.38 lakh conventional bulbs with smart LED lights in all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
To improve the street lighting in urban areas, the State Government had launched Energy Efficient Street Lighting Programme in 2017 at an estimated cost of `326.26 crore with operation and maintenance under Central Control and Monitoring System (CCMS) for a period of seven years. Earlier, the Government had decided to replace 1.11 lakh conventional lights with LED blubs. Around 70 lakh people will be benefited, an official said.
The Cabinet approved the proposal to replace additional 1.27 lakh street lights with LED lights to meet the national benchmark norms of the programme. The energy efficient programme make the urban roads safe and secure with adequate illumination, said Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi after the meeting.
Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of four national PSUs under the Ministry of Power, which has been engaged as the project management consultant to work on turnkey basis in the project since August 2017 carried out the fresh survey. While the Government had sanctioned `86.47 crore for the project earlier, the H&UD officials said the budget will be revised as per the requirement.