LED lights to illuminate city roads

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 13

The energy efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LED) have started lighting up the city as the Municipal Corporation (MC) has changed more than 4,000 bulbs which were being used earlier. 

Now, several city roads will be illuminated with the LED lights compared to the previous yellow sodium lights. 

The roads connecting Fountain Chowk with Leela Bhawan, Thapar University, and the city bus stand are well lit for the ease of commuters. The corporation aims to replace sodium lights with the LED bulbs by the month of May this year.

The corporation presently spends about Rs 6 crore on the electricity bill generated from lighting more than 31,000 lights on roads and streets per year which will be reduced to less than 3 crore after the implementation of the project. 

Officials say, the bulbs being installed will consume less than half the present electricity of 

all streetlights in the 

city, thereby decreasing 

the overall bill of the corporation.

According to the corporation’s seven-year contract with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), the company will provide the bulbs and conduct maintenance for the time period. 

In lieu, the corporation will pay it with new energy consumption cost deducted from the present electricity bill.

Previously, the used bulbs of 20 or 40-watt consumption are being replaced with the LED bulbs of 18-watt consumption. 

Similarly, the old bulbs of 70-watt are being replaced with bulbs consuming 35-watt and 150-watt bulbs with 70-watt LED lights.

The MC Commissioner—Gurpreet Singh Khaira—today said, “We expect the energy consumption of streetlights will be reduced more than 50 per cent. The replacement of lights was started last month and nearly 4,000 old bulbs have been replaced. The replacement of these will be complete by May.”