In a bid to reduce energy consumption by street lights and cut down the electricity bill, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) would change all the streetlights in the city with modern lights in next six months.
A decision to this effect was taken at the BMC council meeting attended by the BMC Mayor, the Commissioner and almost all the corporators here on Saturday.
“There are 35,000 streetlights under BMC jurisdictions and the BMC is currently spending Rs 75 lakh as electricity bill every month. We have set a target to limit the electricity bill by Rs 25 lakh by changing the old street lights with modern lights,” said BMC Mayor Anant Narayan Jena.
Jena said, in the new system dimmers will be installed to reduce the intensity of illumination according to the availability of lights. Similarly, timers will be set up so that the lights will be switched off automatically at a specific time.
The BMC is targeting to change 14,000 street lights in first phase. The meeting approved the renovation work of at least 12 ponds under JNNURM scheme. A cost of Rs 13.23 crore will be spent for the purpose. The meeting too agreed to send proposals to the State Government for sanction of funds for up-gradation of nine ponds and 11 parks in the city, besides deciding to construct boundary walls at 14 Government lands which were provided to the BMC for various purposes.