Chandigarh February 20 :

Haryana Government has started the work to replace the street lights of all towns in the State with energy efficient LED street lights which would help in saving electricity by 60 to 70 percent.

While stating this today, Urban Local Bodies Minister, Mrs. Kavita Jain said that the Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal has issued directions in this regard. To begin with, six districts have been identified for this purpose in the first phase.

Mrs. Jain said that the six districts identified for the first phase included Sonipat, Karnal, Hisar, Faridabad, Rewari, and Kurukshetra. She said that the number of street lights which are to be replaced with LED Street lights included 25,814 street lights of all four local bodies under Sonipat district namely Sonipat, Gohana, Kharkhoda and Gannaur, 20,984 street lights in local bodies of Karnal, Nilokheri, Nissing, Gharaunda, Assandh, Traori and Indri in district Karnal, 27,776 street lights of local bodies of Hisar, Hansi, Barwala and Narnaund in district Hisar, 50,267 street lights of Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, 11,549 street lights of local bodies of Rewari, Dharuhera and Bawal in district Rewari and 23,423 street lights of local bodies of Thanesar, Pehowa, Shahbad and Ladwa in district Kurukshetra.

The Minister said that latest and modern technique of central control system would be adopted for operating these street lights thus enabling a robust monitoring system. She said that all the street lights installed in the area of urban local bodies would be operated from the control room set up at the district headquarter level with Radio Frequency Technique whereas, 50 percent street lights in the State would be operated at single level by dividing in the groups of Centralized Control or Monitoring System. The operational time of these street lights could also be changed according to the summer and winter seasons.

She said that a provision has also been made to change the infrastructure of street lights. She said that a ten year contract would be made for operating these street lights having auto timer switch and for their upkeep and maintenance. Apart from the six districts, work to replace street lights with LED street lights in the remaining districts also would be started soon, she added.