After opposing the installation of light-emitting diode (LED) lights at Marine Drive last year, Shiv Sena — the ruling party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) — approved the proposal to install 4,400 LED lights at major city roads on Friday.
Some of these roads include the Shahid Bhagat Singh Road and DN Road in Fort, JJ Flyover; Babasaheb Ambedkar Road, Byculla; Clare Road from Byculla to Sion; Walkeshwar Road; Nepean Sea Road; Peddar Road; Lala Lajpatrai Road and Annie Besant Road in Worli, where the sodium vapour lamps (SVL) will be replaced by LED lights by March 2017.
The Rs 0.035 billion proposal was cleared by the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) committee, in which the Shiv Sena has the majority.
For citizens, this means better illumination on the city roads. Currently, the SVLs have 40 lux (unit of illuminance), while LEDs will give 50 lux. The durability of LED lights is five to seven years, while the life of SLVs is around one and a half year.
In January, 2015 the installation of LED lights on Marine Drive had led to a verbal spat between Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Mumbai unit and MLA Ashish Shelar.
Following this, the BEST committee opposed the proposal, citing financial losses and concern over footing the budget for installing the lights.
The BEST maintains and provides power supply to around 37,000 street lamps in the island city, which stretches from Colaba to Sion and Colaba to Mahim.
By Baishakhi Dutta
