SPOTLIGHT: A SMART Project which plunged Bengaluru City in Darkness

A lowdown into why Bengaluru City and more specifically why Mahadevapura was plunged in darkness and most street lights were not working

In the last few weeks, a few thousand LED Street lights have been installed across BBMP Mahadevapura Division. Few netizens questioned why Street lights installation has become a propaganda in Silicon Valley of India

Street lights not working and new roads not having Street lights has been one of the major Complaints from Citizens across the city. The City Streets plunged into darkness

Many netizens attributed this as “Lack of Political Will” and “Deep rooted Corruption” as the reason for this malice and created sense of hopelessness and “Bengaluru will never improve” kind of scenario

Why this Policy Paralysis??

An ambitious pan-city contract to a single vendor under the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model was proposed in 2018. The PPP consortium was expected to invest around ₹840 crore and install 4 Lakh+ Street lights and recover costs over the next ten years. The contract was awarded in March 2019 to Bangalore Streetlighting Private Limited (BSPL), a consortium of Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private Limited, SMC Infrastructure Private Limited and Samudra Electronics Systems Private Limited

All budgets for new Street light fixtures or new poles were declined by BBMP Head office.

The Consortium did not progress much on the work. Energy audits to baseline current power consumption was not progressed on time.

Meanwhile, Complaints of Street lights not working echoed in the BBMP Council every month. Assurances were given by the BBMP Commissioner’s that the project would be revived

Covid-19 Pandemic stuck and derailed things further. Nearly four show-cause notices were served from BBMP to the Shapoorji Pallonji-led consortium after it failed to execute the project in Bengaluru in the given timeframe

The escalation reached the Karnataka Legislature too and finally decision/direction was given by the Chief Minister to the BBMP Chief Commissioner to review and scrap the project

Finally, the Policy Paralysis got resolved and BBMP started allocation of budget in 2022-23 budget

Finally the Good News!!

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Street lights are getting installed across Mahadevapura on MISSION MODE and closely tracked by our MLA Office.

All impediments and coordination with BESCOM and other BBMP Departments are being taken up by the local leaders and Task force volunteers

We are confident all Streets in Mahadevapura BBMP Division will be lit up in 3 months

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#betterCommute