West Bengal may switch to LED-based street lights

West Bengal may probably become the first state in the country to switch to LED-based street lights over the next five years as part of an energy conservation drive.
"We have been indicated that the state wishes to switch to LED-based street lighting across the state over the next five years in association with us," Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) Managing Director, Saurabh Kumar told PTI.
All forms of street lights, mostly sodium vapour lights, will be replaced by intelligent LEDs offering huge savings in energy consumption.
Before moving to districts, the project will replace three lakh street lights of the metropolis and Nabadiganta, the IT-hub, which will become the world's largest in terms of coverage of street lights, Kumar said.

"We expect to sign a MoU for general approval for state-wide implementation of the project and by Kolkata and Nabadiganta by the end of this month," Kumar said.
The Kolkata project will cost around Rs 300 crore, but the state will not have to shell out any capex to rollout the green initiative.

EESL will provide the entire capex to replace street lamps and the payback for the nodal agency will come from the savings it will achieve from lower energy bill for the state government.
EESL was promoted by state-owned entities under the Ministry of Power and was entrusted to implement and popularise energy conservation projects.

Once, the street lights are replaced by new smart LEDs that will save 50-55 per cent of energy, the three lakh street lights could be controlled and monitored centrally as the lamp posts would have GSM or RFID-based connectivity.