PANAJI
Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar has said that the government had held back payments due to the company tasked with installing LED streetlights as it was not satisfied with the work.
Owing to the dispute, the government has agreed to have a third party conduct inspections to ascertain whether the company BVG has indeed installed lamps as was expected of it according to the contract.
“We had given the company a contract to replace all the street lights. However, we have found that at several locations it has installed extra lights and at other places there are no lights. Secondly, as per the contracts they have to maintain the streetlights for eight years and ensure that there is a maintenance team for every 200 lights. This aspect is too missing,” Madkaikar said.
He said that in the interim period, the electricity department was itself ensuring that streetlights were functioning even if it meant placing sodium vapour lamps to replace the faulty LED lights in the interim.
Madkaikar also said that often the department is blamed for non-functional streetlights along newly constructed roads and bridges which are installed by either the PWD or the GSIDC.
“Despite the GSIDC or PWD not handing over charge to the Electricity Department we get the blame for the non-functioning lights,” Madkaikar said adding that he was now formulating a special street light policy where providing street light extensions, street light maintenance and energy bills shall be the responsibility of the electricity department.
Madkaikar also said that the Electricity Department carried out a total of 3100 disconnections of both domestic and commercial consumers who have not paid their dues to the department.
He said that an enforcement squad was now constituted to ensure that there were no cases of power theft in the state.
