City residents are saying streetlights on the capital’s roads are in bad shape as the two city corporations of Dhaka do not maintain them properly.
The two city corporations - Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) have put three kinds of lights in the streetlights – sodium, fluorescent and energy saving lights (ESL).
Residents of Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Jigatola, Azimpur, old Dhaka, Jatrabari, Moghbazar, Kamlapur, Shantinagar, Kalabagan and other different areas under both DNCC and DSCC said many streetlights in different alleyways and smaller roads were out of order.
This correspondent found that DNCC had set low power ESLs instead of sodium light in the lampposts on the busy road between Gulshan 1 and Gulshan 2.
Farhan Islam, a resident of Gulshan, said, “The ESLs in the streetlights are not enough for the busy and wide road. They give a thin amount of light which is not enough to see the road.”
“When there is fog, the ESLs become useless for their poor delivery of light. The road is more than 100 feet wide, so it needs sodium light all over,” he added.
Shubhas Saha, a resident of Gopibagh, said the city corporations only maintain the lights on the main streets.
“The corporation collects holding tax from all household owners, but they are not giving proper service,” he added.
Sources in the city corporations said a number of corrupted officials are embezzling money through frequent change of lights and purchasing low quality lights.
DNCC sources said in 2012 the corporation purchased at least 8,000 ESL and sodium lamps, accessories from Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory and Aluminates BD in the last year and issued it to different zonal representatives to set them up on the streets.
The corporation purchased different types of lights and a committee was formed to check the quality of lights before being supplied to zonal representatives.
Officials of the corporation said the DNCC authority removed new ESLs from the streetlights in less than a month because of problems and low quality.
Brig Gen Md Abul Khair, the chief engineer of the DNCC, admitted the poor condition of streetlights in different areas.
“We know that streetlights in different areas are in poor condition. We have taken steps to improve the streetlights in the city roads, and hope that the improvement work will be complete by June,” he said.
“I have directed every zonal office of the corporation to submit a report on the condition of the streetlights,” he added.
Asked about the allegation of purchasing lights in 2012, Brig Gen Khair said: “I do not know about the allegation, because the purchase was completed before I joined.”
Md Zahangir Alam, the chief engineer of DSCC, said: “We have not asked for reports. In every annual report we discuss the problems of streetlights and take steps to resolve them.”
“Presently there are no complaints. If there is a problem in any area, the respective zonal officials can inform us and we will take initiatives to solve them,” he added.