THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The installation of LED streetlights, to replace the old sodium vapour lamps in the city, is likely to begin by the end of September. Corporation secretary Binu Francis said the technical evaluation of the bids submitted by six companies has been completed.
The financial evaluation will be done in two weeks and the plan will be presented before the corporation council. “Once the plan is approved by the council, the tender will be finalised, and the work will start by the end of next month, said Binu.
He said the dysfunctional lights that are being maintained by the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) will be made operational before Onam. Meanwhile, the power connection for the streetlights on the Chackai flyover was resumed by the KSEB. Earlier, the KSEB disconnected the power due to an electricity bill default for three months.
Six companies participated in the tendering process, of which three are from Kerala. The technical evaluation was completed in June. However, it pointed out defects in the bids submitted by the companies. Therefore, the committee gave two more weeks to the firms to come up with a new proposal, which was evaluated recently. In addition to installation, the partners will be responsible for the maintenance of the lights for 10 years.
The private partner will also pay for material purchases and cover electricity costs during this period. The corporation has plans to install more than 1 lakh streetlights in the city. As per recent estimates, the city has approximately 1.08 lakh streetlights. Of this, only 40% is operational. In the first phase, as many as 10,000 streetlights will be installed.
The LED lights will be installed in three KSEB divisions of the city — Kazhakootam, Central, and Neyyattinkara. In 2020, the corporation replaced nearly 39,500 of the total 85,000 streetlights in 100 wards. However, the project, which was executed for around `18 crore in 2018 and 2019, faced a major setback when the company roped in by the KSEB to manage the LED streetlights stopped giving support for its maintenance.
POWER PROFIT
The corporation pays D10-D12 crore per month towards electricity expenses. With the installation of LED lights, the civic body expects to drastically bring down this cost.