Srinagar: Street lights that remain on during the day because no one bothers to switch them off may not be seen any more. The Srinagar Municipal Corporation is set to phase out its street lights that are manually operated. Sensor-based street lights that will automatically turn on and off will now be put up.
The new lot will be introduced soon and is expected to save much energy. As per an official at SMC, there are nearly 11,000 street lights installed in Srinagar, all of them manually operated. The official said that almost 50% of these street lights remain operational during the day even when they are not needed.
Joint Commissioner, Works, at SMC, Ishtiaq Ahmad told Kashmir Reader that given this waste of precious energy, it has been decided to install photo-sensor based street lights that will automatically switch on in the evening and turn off in the morning.
“We have stopped installation of street lights for the time being till we get these new lights,” he said.
The officials said that a Delhi-based company, Energy Efficiency Service Ltd (EESL), will be hired for installing these new lights.
The corporation is working on this project for a year now and under it, 62,000 street lights have to be installed in two phases.
“In the first phase, 37,800 lights are going to be installed in all parts of Srinagar city. Once the department will complete the first phase, then we will start working on the second phase,” officials said.
Another reason for installing senor-based lights is that a dedicated supply line for the street lights has not been made functional by the Power Development Department (PDD).
The SMC officials said that to have control at one place for the street lights, the PDD have to install a dedicated cable for it, which it hasn’t done so far.
Chief Engineer of PDD, Ajaz Dar, told Kashmir Reader that the SMC will have to find another option as a dedicated line is not possible until under- ground cabling is done to enable single control of the street light network.
He added that the department has already issued tenders for the under-ground cabling. “Once the under-ground cabling is carried out, a dedicated circuit for the street light will be possible. Till then, the SMC will have to look for an alternative,” Dar said.

NAZIMA SIDIQ