Civic bodies around Kolkata will have a standard operating procedure (SOP) for maintenance of lamp posts and similar installations and will be held accountable for any accident, urban development minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim said on Monday.
The SOP will have clear guidelines on how the local bodies will draw up a list of poles and then approach the respective departments responsible for their maintenance.
“There can’t be any passing the buck. The municipality concerned will be held accountable for any incident involving such a lamp post, electrical post or similar other post. We will specify how to go about checking the structures,” Hakim told The Telegraph.
“A copy of the SOP will reach all urban bodies by June 30.”
On Monday, officials of the urban development department met to discuss the salient points of the SOP.
The SOP will lay thrust on the following areas.
• Identifying the location of a lamp post or a similar structure (in which municipal area)
• Identifying the department/body/utility company responsible for maintenance
• Ascertaining when was a pole last inspected and whether any report was submitted to the local civic body
• The local bodies have to ensure that the departments concerned are informed about the current condition of the poles and seek a date for a joint inspection
• Listing the steps required to maintain the structures after considering their height and foundation.
“If a post belongs to the transport department and is being ill-maintained, the local civic body will have to alert the municipality and ensure its maintenance,” Hakim said.
“The monsoon is here and we don't want another mishap to happen.”
Electrical poles, lamp posts, telephone posts and similar other structures stand along roads, lanes and bylanes under a number of municipal bodies, including Bidhannagar, Dum Dum, Baranagar, Rajpur-Sonarpur and Howrah.
Senior officials of the urban development department said there had never been any audit of the condition of these structures by most of these municipalities.
“Some of them have been standing defunct for years and the structures have rusted. These will have to be removed and the wires disconnected,” said an official of the department.
