Arterial roads in Trichy lit by ULB

TRICHY: As most areas of the arterial roads in Trichy have been adequately lit by the urban local body (ULB), many road users are anxious of the quality and luminance of the LED lights in use.

Taking the safety of road users in consideration, particularly of the pedestrians, a demand to enhance the luminance and efficiency of street lights in arterial and residential roads was placed by residents before the Trichy City Corporation (TCC).

With around 36,800 street lights spread across the 65 wards of the civic body, Trichy Corporation in early 2014 took up an energy conservation project by converting fluorescent tube lights (FTL) to LED lamps. While the conversion is under way, several complaints have been raised by the residents about the quality and luminance of street lights in arterial roads.

According to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the desired lamp output in residential and commercial streets has been fixed at 6 Lux (unit of luminance) and 10 Lux respectively. However, many residents pointed out that the actual Lux level on the city roads is below the desired output.

“Conversion of old sodium vapour lamps to LED lights should be expedited. Medians strips should be set up at plausible spots to enable installation of street lights for better illumination,” N Manivannan, resident of Keelapudur, said.

“We are monitoring the maintenance of street lights as complaints have surfaced about poor luminance. Through the Smart City programme, you street lights in the entire city would be converted to LED in a year,” a senior official with Trichy Corporation said.