KADAPA: With an aim to cut down on the electricity bills that are imposing a huge burden on gram panchayats, the State government has started installing LED street lights in villages. However, the installation of LED lights is not serving the purpose due to lack of a system to ensure that they are switched off promptly in daytime.
The district administration had set itself a target of installing 1.6 lakh LED street lights in the 790 panchayats of Kadapa. Against the target, 1.31 lakh LED lights have been installed so far. All the panchayats in the district will get LED street lighting by the end of this month, according to Panchayat Raj and Rural Development officials.
Though the installation of LED lights began two months ago, no system has been put in place to switch off the lights promptly early in the morning. This came to light only when Collector Ch Hari Kiran received a complaint recently about glowing of LED street lights in daytime. Hence, the officials were asked to set up the CCMS so that the LED lights get automatically switched off at the dawn and switched on at the dusk. However, the cost of setting up the CCMS has to be borne by the respective gram panchayat itself, the officials said.
It is learnt that of the total 9,478 power transformers in the panchayats, only 1,792 have been connected with the CCMS so far. “It will cost Rs 69 lakh for setting up of the CCMS in all panchayats,” the officials said, adding that the effectiveness of LED street lighting in terms of saving power bills can be assessed only after all the panchayats get the CCMS.