The streets in the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation area are likely to be illuminated soon with smart LED lights, replacing present conventional streetlights, which will not only reduce its electric bill but also lead to reduction of significant amount of carbon emission.

Bidhannagar mayor Krishna Chakraborty called the project a “win-win” one and expressed hope that it would be launched in Salt Lake by the Pujas. Chakraborty was present when state urban development minister Firhad Hakim recently launched the state-level project in a meeting held in Salt Lake.

The replacement will be made under a game-changing initiative undertaken by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture unit under the union power ministry, in association with the state urban development department which will be executed in all urban local bodies of state in a phase-wise manner.

“It’s a unique project where all the conventional streetlights (decorative streetlights like the tridents will remain intact) will be replaced by LED lights by EESL at its own cost which they will also maintain. EESL will realise its investment from the energy saving amount of the urban local bodies. It is expected that the full investment will be realised by EESL in seven years. Municipalities will get a part of the amount saved in initial years but will get the full advantage once EESL goes out,” Venkatesh Dwivedi, director of EESL, explained to The Telegraph Salt Lake.

Minister Firhad Hakim launches the lighting project at Subhanna in DF Block on August 22

Under the project, the energy-saving lights are to remain connected to a web-based system that enables remote operations and centralised control and monitoring.

Once fully executed, the smart LED streetlights will help in reducing energy bills by 30 to 50 per cent for the urban local bodies, and hence promote the state’s Green City Mission. It will also result in substantial reduction in carbon emissions.

'We dedicate the smart and energy efficient LED streetlights to the people of West Bengal. These streetlights will enable more savings, security and ensure a greener future for the people,” Hakim said.

Under the project approximately 60,000 LED streetlights will be installed by EESL in state urban local bodies leading to reduction of 8,500 metric tonnes of carbon emission and 12.2 million electrical units annually. “Apart from this, one lakh smart LED streetlights will be retrofitted only in the areas under the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation,” added the minister.

“This seems to be a win-win project for us as we will not be required to spend any money but get long term dividends. We expect to start working on the project by the Puja,” stated Chakraborty on Wednesday.

According to EESL sources, Bidhannagar is one of the five urban local bodies selected for the project in the first phase. “We have already completed the project in Bankura, Beldanga, Budge Budge and Khardah municipalities and expect to ink the agreement with Salt Lake soon,” said an EESL official on the sidelines of the meeting.

EESL is planning to explore 20 states and 900 cities under the mega energy-saving programme that will be a signature effort within national energy-saving measures as mandated under the commitment made as part of the Paris Agreement in 2015.