Complete LED street lighting in villages by month-end: Chandrababu Naidu

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed the officials to complete the 100 per cent retrofit of street lights with LEDS in all villages in the State by end of March 2019 at any cost.

The Chief Minister also instructed the senior officials to implement energy efficiency measures on a war-footing in all the government departments in order to scale up the ongoing energy efficiency drive across the State.

During a teleconference, the Chief Minister described the LED street lighting in Andhra Pradesh as a silent revolution in rural development which would alter the way villages look.

He said the brighter streets in every village of the State would provide the residents better living standards and better feeling of safety and security as well.

"Besides LED programme, the government also distributed two crore LED bulbs to one crore families in the State. These steps help to make every village and home energy efficient.

This also helps to reduce electricity bills of local bodies and residents as well. The fruits of energy efficient measures reached every home and village with the LED programme. The LED programme is also a boon for economic development of the State and a big step towards environmental protection," the Chief Minister said.

Naidu further said that the State had itself set a target of creating world record in LED street lighting by soon completing installation of 27 lakh street lights.

"AP's LED programme is one of biggest in the world and no State in the country has achieved such a gigantic task so far.

The innovative programme was launched by AP which it is being followed by other States. This will also become a case study in India. Achieving 100 per cent people's satisfaction is the only parameter for success of this prestigious pro-people programme. You can also study the best practices and create a full-pledged mechanism to address people's complaints," the Chief Minister told the officials.

Minister for IT and Panchyat Raj Nara Lokesh said the energy efficient LED street lighting has significantly changed the appearance of villages. The villages which had inadequate lighting in the past are now illuminating with energy efficient LED street lights. The Minister said the street lighting programme has almost reached the final stage.

The State has retrofitted around 22.81 lakh LED street lights in villages out of the total of 27.52 lakh in 11 districts. He said the LED programme in the remaining two districts in Guntur and Prakasam districts will be completed by the end of March-2019.

The government desires to achieve 100 per cent saturation in street lighting. Accordingly 7.5 Lakh LED street lights will be installed in phase-III, the Minister said.

Principal Secretary for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development K Jawahar, Principal Secretary for Energy department Ajay Jain and several leaders were also present.