Whopping electricity bills are punching a hole in the pocket of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The civic body is paying nearly Rs 100 crore per year for electric streetlights in the city.
While the failure of some contractors and officials to switch off the lights at daybreak is one of the main reasons for the swelling bill, the recent power tariff hike and surcharges are also to blame. Add to that the fact that many more streetlights have been installed in the extended areas of the corporation.
Greater Hyderabad has 3.50 lakh streetlights. Though 21,000 “timers” were installed 10 years ago to automatically switch on and off the streetlights, a majority of them are in need of repairs or replacement.
Inquiries by this correspondent revealed that less than 3,000 timers are functioning. About 20 streetlights are covered under one switch. Almost all the streetlights in the city have to be switched on and off manually.
Contract workers are not able to switch off all the streetlights under their purview, so many continue to glow during day time. Each worker controls streetlights spread over an area of about five kilometres. Some streetlights are switched on an hour before sunset as the workers take time to reach all the switches due to heavy traffic.
With a view to save power and also end the contractor raj, the GHMC has set in motion a process to adopt “timers” technology. A GHMC team will visit other cities to study this technology. One type of timer switches off streetlights as per the time set in its in-built clock while the other switches on and off as per the weather conditions.