Pune to get 50,000 new LEDs, PMC claim most street lights not working

₹ 50 crore, 65,000 LED (liquid emitting diode) street lights and three years since 2015, the Pune municipal corporation will now, in 2018, procure 50,000 new LED street lights as the earlier investment and purchases have been declared as substandard.

The net spend forecast, by an electric department member requesting anonymity on the new LEDs and light fitting requirements will be ₹ 24.55 crore.

Shrinivas Kandul, PMC head of the electrical department, said, “PMC will now procure 50,000 new LED fittings as the quality of the existing LED fittings installed at the ward level is poor. Regional ward offices installed almost 65,000 fittings, most of them sourced from local manufactures and are poor quality.”

Kandul added, “The electrical department informed mayor Mukta Tilak, leader of the house Shrinath Bhimale, standing committee chairman Yogesh Mulik and the municipal commissioner of the LED lights failing. The procurement process needs to start very soon, as most of the existing street lights are non-functional.”

PMC, acting on a central government directive, launched its LED project in 2015. Under the project, besides the first batch of LED street light installed, 84,000 new LED itself lights were to be procured. There have been several allegations of corruption that have surrounded the project, with purchases being made from elected member’ development funds and local contractors winning the tenders, at the heart of the issue.

LED for the city 2018-19

LEDs required for 11 merged villages - 5,000

Poor quality LEDs to be replaced - 32,860

Conventional fitting replacements - 8,324

Total net spend forecast: ₹ 24.55 crore