Kovai civic body to instal LED lights in 60 wards

Coimbatore: Under the Smart City project, the Coimbatore city municipal corporation (CCMC) is all set to have LED lights fixed in 60 wards replacing the old ones. A source from the civic body told DC that once the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is lifted, work in this direction will begin.

A sum of Rs 74 crore has been sanctioned for the project as part of the ‘smart city mission’, the source familiar with the development told this Newspaper. “The LED lights and fixtures have been purchased by the contractor and work on the project will commence from May 24.” The lights will be fixed within a period of six months. As part of the project as many as 58,000 LED lights will be fixed across the 60-odd wards of the municipal corporation. There are a total of 75,000 street lights which are fixed in the various streets, a majority of them are either non-functional or need to be repaired.

In 2011, 72 wards of the CCMC were redrawn into 60 wards. subsequently 40 wards were added across the five zones of the Coimbatore corporation. The work to have street lights fixed in all the 100 wards was given to private contractors.

However, the street lights were not maintained properly, forcing the civic body to replace the old lights with new ones in 40 wards. For the street lights in the remaining 60 wards, the civic body duly called for tenders to have the existing lights replaced with LED bulbs. The tender is said to have been finalised recently and the job has been allotted to qualified private contractors.