Maintenance of streetlights affected in city

Maintenance of streetlights affected in city
The Hindu

Contracts yet to be renewed even after two months; payments delayed


BANGALORE: Streetlight maintenance in the city has been severely affected in the last two months because the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has not cleared the contractors' payments for nine months.

BMP sources told The Hindu on Wednesday that although the term of the existing streetlight maintenance contracts ended on February 5, the palike is yet to invite tenders.

The existing contracts were extended and the contractors were asked to continue till further orders. But their payments have been held up as the file pertaining to the extended contracts is pending with the BMP Council.

The maintenance of the city's 1.95 lakh streetlight fittings has been awarded in 26 packages to Bajaj, Crompton Greaves and Phillips. With each package estimated at Rs. 2 lakhs a month, the payment for all the packages exceeds Rs. 3 crores.

Sources in the east zone office of the Executive Engineer (Electrical) said the number of complaints in the last two months had increased by 10 per cent. "Work has been hit because the contractors, who are upset with their bills being kept pending, are unwilling to take up more work," the sources said.

The relevant file was sent to the council four months ago. "The subject is likely to be taken up at the next meeting," the sources said.

The BMP had issued tender forms twice after the contracts expired in February. But it was forced to cancel the tenders because there were not many takers. "We issued applications on Wednesday and hope that the competition among the bidders will be tough this time. If all goes well, the tenders will be finalised within a month," the sources said.

Dangerous hooks

Following the electrocution of seven-year-old Anish in July last year at Indiranagar, Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh and Energy Minister H.D. Revanna had asked the BMP to upgrade the streetlights system before December 2004. The Minister had said that if the BMP does not meet the deadline, power supply to the poles will be cut.

Although the Minister's threat has not been executed, over 3,000 of the 8,300 controlling points for streetlights still have a dangerous hook in place of a proper switch.

In the absence of proper switches, lights in some areas are never switched off. They keep glowing because people are scared to switch them off.

The BMP, which has set aside Rs. 25 crores in this year's budget for upgrading streetlights system, had started preparations for inviting tenders six months before the contracts ended in February. The civic body had asked the Infrastructure Development Corporation, Karnataka (IDECK), to study the old tender guidelines and suggest modifications.