'Over 30 lakh LED street lights installed, 50k of roads illuminated'

The government on Saturday said that the Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) has achieved installation of over 30 lakh LED street lights across the country to illuminate 50,000 km of road.

According to the Ministry of Power, state-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has emerged as the world's largest street light management company after the successful installation of more than 30 lakh LED street lights over a stretch of 50,000 km.

"The installation of 30 lakh LED street lights has resulted in 39 crore kWh of annual energy savings, avoided capacity of over 104.19 MW to the urban local bodies (ULBs)," the ministry said in a statement.

"It has also helped in reduction of 3.29 lakh tonnes of CO2 annually."

The statement pointed out that Rajasthan led the country with installation of 7.85 lakh LED street lights followed by Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat with 6.03 lakh and 5.4 lakh respectively.

"Presently, EESL is retrofitting 15,000 conventional lights with LED street lights every day. Project is near completion in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Tripura and Gujarat," the statement said.

"The programme has also recently commenced in the cities of Chandigarh and Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands."

The statement added that procurement price of the LED street lights has been reduced from Rs 135 per watt to Rs 80 per watt due to mass procurement.

--IANS

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