Bengaluru civic officials must conduct mandatory field inspections after LED street-light installations, verify that the lights are properly fitted and functioning, and penalise contractors for defective work or poor maintenance, Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda directed during a virtual meeting with officials.
The order comes as the installation of LED street lights and replacement of older lamps continues across the city. Officials told the meeting that work has been completed in several areas after inspections last month and a series of review meetings, but installations are still pending in other parts of Bengaluru.
Byre Gowda directed authorities to complete the remaining work by October 31. He also asked officials to take steps to convert sodium-vapour lamps to LED lights in the eastern municipal corporation area. The field inspections are intended to check both the quality of the installation and the operational condition of the lights after contractors complete the work.
Contractors can be fined if lights are not installed properly or do not function as required. Penalties are also being imposed on the basis of complaints registered through the Sahaaya 2.0 software platform. The total amount of fines imposed on contractors for failures in street-light maintenance has reached ₹93,67,384, according to officials.
The administration is also working on a centralised control and monitoring system, or CCM S, to track the functioning of street lights automatically. Officials have been asked to submit schedules showing the proposed completion timelines for the system in each Assembly constituency. Separate control rooms being established for the four municipal corporations must also be completed by October 31, the minister directed.
The monitoring system is being linked to a broader effort to improve response to street-light complaints. Officials said the average number of complaints recorded through Sahaaya 2.0 fell from 293 a day in June to 235 a day in October as monitoring increased. They also reported that 8,186 complaints were registered between September and October 15, of which 6,765 had already been resolved.
GBA Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao said officials were holding regular meetings to review progress on LED street-light installation. Senior officials from the respective municipal corporations were also conducting field inspections and imposing penalties on contractors who failed to maintain the lights, he said. The administration attributed the reported improvement in maintenance to continuous monitoring and faster action on complaints.
The October 31 deadline now covers the completion of pending LED installations, the conversion of sodium lights in the eastern municipal corporation area and the construction of the planned control rooms. The constituency-wise schedule for the CCM S system is to be submitted as part of the next stage of implementation.
