Madurai: Despite recent modernizations and extensive LED upgrades undertaken by Madurai corporation across its 100 wards, widespread street light failures continue to cause public outrage and dominate discussions at the corporation council meetings. City councillors have flagged critical flaws in municipal execution, pointing out that several newly installed high-powered lamps, energy-efficient LEDs, and light poles are left standing unpowered or non-functional.
The corporation continues to upgrade all 60,000 streetlights in the city to LED ones,” the official added.
Ram Charan, a software engineer who works in night shift regularly, said his commute to and from office was fraught with dangers. “On many streets around Elcot IT Park, Alagar Kovil and Moondrumavadi main road, the centre median streetlights do not work, leaving a large portion of the road in complete darkness,” he said. “At least 60 streetlights are required on these stretches,” he added.
Many vehicles enter the city through these routes at highway speeds. A senior corporation official claimed streetlights installed in the past few months are in working condition. “Inspections will be conducted in areas the councillors mentioned.