Street lights switched on during the day in the city

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) spends around Rs 3.8 crore a month on illuminating the city roads. Apart from burning a deep hole in the civic pocket, the expense hints at a larger peril — an unusually high carbon footprint for the city.

Calcutta has 1.5 lakh lamp posts, which utilise close to 28,789 kilowatt-hour electricity every day. According to experts, this translates into the production of about 288 tonnes of carbon dioxide a day.

The civic body has come up with a programme to minimise energy consumption on city roads. The pilot project, inaugurated by the mayor at a city hotel on Saturday, will use light-emitting diodes (LED) instead of the conventional sodium vapour lamps on streets.

“This is a first for Bengal. LEDs reduce energy consumption by at least 40 per cent,” says Sushil Sharma, the CMC’s mayor in council in charge of electricity and environment.

The cost of the pilot project is estimated at Rs 1.3 crore, to be shared equally by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency of the central government and the CMC, Sharma adds.

Climate Group, a Delhi based NGO, is facilitating the initiative. The group has worked on similar projects in New York, London, Adelaide and Hong Kong earlier, says one of its members, Aditi Dass.

The West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd and the state Pollution Control Board are also partnering the project.

Initially, the bulbs in some 350 lamp posts in nine places — Belvedere Road, Alipore Road, Belgachhia Rail Gate, Satyajit Ray Park, Swinhoe Lane, Dr GS Road, Bondel bridge, Narkeldanga Main Road and Loudon Street — will be replaced with LEDs. This is expected to reduce generation of carbon dioxide by 300kg every day.

Will the project just add to the long list of pre-poll gimmicks? “It’s a dream project and we have already earmarked the entire amount the CMC is required to pump in,” counters Sharma.

Conversion to LED means 40 per cent less consumption from the state grid. If the project takes off, how will the government explain power cuts?