Monday, October 13, 2014: Bihar’s Minister Samrat Choudhary, heading the state urban development and housing department (UDHD), has announced plans to install 5,000 light emitting diode (LED) street lights in Patna. The announcement has come forward just in the middle of preparations for the upcoming Chhath festival.
The minister has also announced that about 1,000 LED street lights will be installed in 10 municipal corporations each in the state, though Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) will not be a part of this plan. Ahead of the festival, the minister has ordered the officials to clean up and monitor development work across all the 72 Chhath ghats in Patna. The minister has been informed that 312 of the 365 street lights in the PMC-covered new capital circle have been functional while 130 of the 412 street lights under Bankipore circle require restoration.
The department plans to monitor maintenance of installed street lights on flyovers and railway over-bridges. The department officials will identify all those places which have no street lamppost and LED street lights will be on their priority list for installation. After the new installations, the renovation works will begin, according to sources. The development process of ghats includes proper lighting, repairing the steps, barricading and proper approach roads too. 28 ghats will be developed at west of Gandhi Ghat near National Institute of Technology and the project will be undertaken by Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (BUIDCO). PMC will undertake the projects towards east of Gandhi Ghat.
