Sahodaran Ayyappan Road
“As per our data, 522 high-mast lights in the city are defunct. Around 125 high-mast lights are functional. Edakochi councillor K J Basil said that he brought the issue of repairing 27 lights in his division to the notice of the CSML contractor.
Corporation LDF parliamentary party secretary V A Sreejith, “Had the survey been completed, the measures to replace defunct streetlights with new ones could have been taken the same,” Sreejith said. There should be urgent steps to repair the lights,” he said. Mayor V K Minimol said the corporation deployed an agency to conduct the survey. The field work will soon be started,” she said. Councillors said streetlights are not functioning on Kathrikadavu, Venduruthy, UP and Kundannoor bridges. “The private agency which are to maintain the lights has erected billboards on the bridges,” Sreejith said. “When the previous council roped in the agency to maintain the streetlights on bridges, they were allowed to erect billboards,” the mayor said. “On Kundannoor bridge, the streetlights on Kochi corporation side are not operational while those on Maradu municipality side are working,” Thevara division councillor Elizabeth Idikkula said. The mayor said that the CSML contractors are blaming KSEB for the delay in repair works.
“The defunct streetlights, especially on bridges may lead to accidents. “We have completed preliminary steps for conducting the survey. In the case of LED streetlights installed by CSML, we will be able to take steps to repair the lights after getting the survey report,” she added. There are no streetlights on Subhash Chandra Bose Road and Sahodaran Ayyappan Road. She asked the corporation officials to take immediate steps to remove the billboards from all bridges where streetlights are defunct. The lights on Metro pillars along Vyttila-Janatha stretch are also defunct. But the contractor repaired only four streetlights even after several days. Minimol asked the councillors to submit the details of defunct streetlights in their area to the executive engineers within two days.
Many councillors raised the issue at the council meeting held on Thursday.