Additional 70,000 street lights to be installed in Delhi under govt scheme

Delhi Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday gave an approval to the installation of additional 70,000 street lights in the national capital, officials said.

This will be in addition to the 2.1 lakh street lights that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had earlier aimed to install in the city, they said.

"In another landmark decision that will make the national capital safer for its citizens, the Kejriwal government is set to install 70,000 street lights in various constituencies of Delhi under the Mukhyamantri Street Light Yojana," the department said in a statement.

Bharadwaj gave the nod to the scheme to install an additional 70,000 street lights, increasing the target from 2.1 lakh to 2.8 lakh, and directed the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to complete the project within the timeline, it said.

He said the initiative had been taken after seeing the "tremendous participation" of the residents of Delhi under the Mukhyamantri Street Light Yojana, and therefore it was "decided to install an additional 1,000 street lights in each (assembly) constituency of Delhi".

Delhi has 70 assembly constituencies.

Bharadwaj said that the Delhi government is committed to ensuring the safety of women.

In 2019, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced the Mukhyamantri Street Light Yojana. Under the scheme, the aim was to install 2.1 lakh street lights in different parts of Delhi and the responsibility of installing these street lights was given to three different companies. LED lights of 10, 20 and 40 watt were to be installed under this scheme, the statement said.