Mumbai to get LED street lights by Dussera: Piyush Goyal

Union power minister on Thursday announced that all the street lights on the streets of Mumbai will be converted to LED lights by Dussera. These lights has a longer life, are brighter and energy-efficient.

Union power minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday announced that all the street lights on the streets of Mumbai will be converted to light emitting diode (LED) lights by Dussera. These lights has a longer life, are brighter and energy-efficient.

The announcement comes even as the Shiv Sena leaders are cheesed off at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for keeping them in the dark about the project and allotting it without a tender process to the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture company of public sector undertakings of the Union ministry of power.

“I had a meeting with the state power minister Bawankhule, BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte, BEST and the other power companies, where we agreed on doing this. We will be doing this through EESL on the lines of Delhi,” said Goyal. In Delhi, the government will be changing one crore bulbs to LED within one year.

“There will be some investment to begin with. But with 50% saving, the money can initially be used for paying off the project costs. Later, it will start benefitting the city,” he added.

The BMC currently spends approximately Rs 164 crore annually on the street lights and their power consumption. Currently, 39, 603 street lights are operated by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking; 80, 209 by Reliance and 12, 652 by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.