70% of city lacks streetlights

Citizens exposed to accidents, crimes; 437 lights are installed on 9 major roads

LAHORE:

A survey has disclosed that about 70 per cent of the streetlights in the metropolis are not in a working condition and the proportion of the functional lights is decreasing, due to which the citizens are facing problems.

A resident of the city asserted while speaking to The Express Tribune that the authorities made efforts to keep the streetlights properly lit on the important routes of the city used by VIPs. However, negligence is shown regarding installation of streetlights in the low income areas.

Due to the lack of the facility, the areas plunge into darkness at night and the residents face difficulty in travelling. They are exposed to the risk of crimes as well as accidents.

The survey conducted recently revealed that of the 22,507 streetlights installed on 498 roads across the city, as many as 17,354 were not working. Thus almost 70% of the population of Lahore is deprived of the facility of streetlights.

Of the lights, 437 are installed on nine major roads in the city -- MM Alam Road, Zahoor Elhi Road, The Mall road, Davis Road, Gulberg Main Boulevard, Ferozepur Road, Zafar Ali Road and Thokar Chowk to Canal Road.

About 70% of the lights are functioning on the main thoroughfares, while the remaining 30% are also set to be repaired.

Of the more than 10,000 streetlight poles installed on 245 other roads in the nine zones of the city, more than 5,000 street poles are functioning while 4,000 lack the lighting devices.

According to the survey, more than 10,000 sodium lights are currently installed along the roads of Lahore. The cost of one light was Rs21,000 and a plan had been made to replace them with LED lights.

At the time, the cost of one light was Rs50,000 and they had to be installed at 22,507 spots.

The metropolitan corporation had planned to spend about Rs1.25 billion on the energy saving project.

The corporation had earlier issued tenders of around Rs300 million to purchase sodium lights.

The process was cancelled in view of the proposal to buy LED lights.

Tenders for 437 LED lights were planned, but the PML-N’s provincial government ended and the PML-Q and PTI’s alliance came into power.

The tenders worth Rs200 million were called for buying the lights but were cancelled due to lack of interest of contractors and no clear policy of the corporation.

As the caretaker government took charge, a ban was imposed on all development work and new projects for three months.

Meanwhile, the lights could not be purchased even in a year and a half and 70% of Lahore plunges into darkness at night.

When contacted, Lahore Metropolitan Corporation Chief Executive Officer Ali Abbas Bukhari said the streetlight had not been purchased in a long time mainly because of frequent changes of governments and lack of a clear policy.

“We are trying to provide streetlights along the VVIP and VIP roads as well as in other city areas,” he added.

Bukhari said LED lights would be installed to reduce the electricity cost amid the increasing tariff.

“As soon as we get permission from the Punjab government to carry out development work and buy the lights, we will immediately acquire standard lights from big companies so that they can be guaranteed and run for a long time,” he said.

An urban development expert, Dr Nasir Javed, said various companies and authorities had been created to take over functions like property tax, cattle market, parking, sanitation system and district tax, from municipal corporations, which now lacked funds to provide facilities to the citizens.

He said the government should empower and strengthen the municipal corporations so that civic services could be provided to the citizens.

He said streetlights were among the most important civic facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2023.