VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government has announced a major push towards sustainable urban infrastructure with the launch of an Integrated Lighting Management System (ILMS)-based Smart Street Lighting Project across all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). The flagship initiative, taken up in collaboration with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a Union Ministry of Power undertaking, is part of the Government of India’s Street Lighting National Programme.
The project’s progress was reviewed in a virtual meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) S. Suresh Kumar and Commissioner & Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA) P. Sampath Kumar. Senior officials including EESL CEO Akhilesh Kumar Dixit, CPDCL CMD and APSEEDCO Managing Director P. Pulla Reddy also participated.
Suresh Kumar underscored the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s directive that the project must be completed within six months of agreement signing, ensuring citizens benefit from energy efficiency measures without delay.
He also released a special EESL report highlighting national energy-efficiency impacts, recalling Andhra Pradesh’s pioneering adoption of LED street lighting during the post-Hudhud Cyclone reconstruction in Visakhapatnam nearly a decade ago.
CDMA Sampath Kumar stated that MA&UD Minister P Narayana has directed officials to guarantee a minimum of 30 per cent energy savings, calculated through actual measured performance data rather than deemed-savings methodologies.
EESL CEO Dixit announced that commercial bids for the project will open on June 15. He highlighted that the national programme already delivers Rs 5,400 crore in annual savings to ULBs, reduces 6.2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, and generates 9,031 million kWh in energy savings.