Punjab is all set to be the first state in the country installing street lights with quality LED lights in all cities and towns as Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal approving the project directed the Secretary Local Bodies to ensure its completion by August 15 next year thereby saving 100 MW power annually.
Presiding over a high level meeting Mr Badal asked the Local Bodies department to replace traditional street lights with quality LED light in the first phase in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Patiala cities by April 30 next and all urban areas will be illuminated with LED lights in the second phase within eight months. It will improve driving and night-time visibility for pedestrians and motorists, he added.He informed that pilot project for LED installations in SAS Nagar would be completed by the end of this year. "Using LED lights would result in huge saving of energy and money for municipalities as a study conducted in SAS Nagar reveals saving of 35,20,911 KW of energy every year by replacing 18,920 lighting lamps" added Mr Badal. Stating that life expectancy and power consumption of LED lights are five times more than CFLs, Deputy Chief Minister asked department and POWERCOM to calculate actual amount of electricity bills including maintenance costs being incurred by the Urban Local Bodies and development authorities on traditional street lights. He also directed to install more street light poles wherever required for better illumination. Mr. Badal asked the Chief Secretary to constitute a committee having representatives from PWD, PEDA, Local Government and PIDB to take quick policy decisions wherever and whenever required to complete this project in a fixed time frame.
Keeping in view the energy saving and cost reduction, Deputy CM has also mooted the idea of replacing all lighting points of state government offices, boards and corporations with LED lights in the state. He asked the Chief Secretary to coordinate with POWERCOM to get a complete survey at the earliest in this regard and to take this as pilot project in all offices in one block for LED retrofitting within next two months.Deputy Chief Minister has also appealed the religious and educational institutions to adopt LED lighting system to save energy, money and our environment from global warming. He said that Punjab has power surplus capacity and all thermal plants would start working as soon as coal supply issue resolved. Adding further he said that now in next phase state is looking for energy saving techniques to meet the future challenges besides tackling the problems like global warming.
Prominent amongst present in the meeting included Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal, Secretary Local Government Ashok Gupta, Director Local Bodies Priyank Bharti, Rahul Tiwari, Manvesh Singh Sidhu and Ajay Kumar Mahajan (all Special Principal Secretaries to Deputy Chief Minister), Amarpal Singh CEO PEDA and Uma Shankar Commissioner MC SAS Nagar.