Street lights: Chennai Corporation to implement new LED system

According to a Chennai Corporation official, the new system would be implemented under the smart city mission on bus route roads (BRR) in the first phase. The Group Monitoring System would transfer data to the centralised server on the functioning of the lights apart from real-time reporting of faults and power surges.

“A total of 38,778 (150W) LED lights, including upcoming new installations, will be managed under the system. For this, those lights will be connected to feeder pillar boxes. Of the total 38,778 LED lights, 17,217 (150W) lights on bus roads will be provided with dimmable drivers, while the remaining lights will be connected to non-dimmable drivers. 

Thousand pillar boxes will be erected in the first phase,” the official said. Explaining the features of dimmable drivers, the official said, “The street lights will be dimmed up to 30 per cent depending on the density of traffic and ambient light. After the implementation of the dimming system, the civic body will save Rs 2.45 crore per year. The first phase of the project will be implemented for Rs 58.06 crore.”

The Chennai Corporation has envisaged installing 7,094 pillar boxes to manage all the LED street lights. At present, there are 2,77,662 street lights in the city, out of which 1,82,775 are either converted or newly installed LED lights.

The civic body has reduced its electricity bill on street lights to Rs 4.50 crore from Rs 6 crore per month. Apart from 1,82,775 LED lights, 1,05,193 new LED lights would be installed across the city in a phased manner.