Streets of Patna are expected to be illuminated before the festive season. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, July 10: This Diwali, there will be light at your home as well as on streets. It will be the civic body’s gift to you for the festive season.

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) will float tenders within 10 days for installing as well as maintaining streetlights and high-mast lamps in all its 72 wards. Sources in the civic body said the work would be awarded to bidders zone-wise. The firms would have to finish their assignment before the festi-ve season.

PMC mayor Afzal Imam told The Telegraph: “Apart from a few important stretches, the city remains plunged in darkness from dusk to dawn in the absence of streetlights. In some areas, streetlights have been installed but they are defunct because of lack of maintenance. So, we have decided to install streetlights along all the roads in the city.”

Imam said the decision to install the streetlights was taken in the meeting of the empowered standing committee yesterday.

“There was proposal to install 200 streetlights in each ward. But considering the financial condition of the corporation, we have decided to erect 100 street lamps in each ward. The cost of installing one streetlight is around Rs 1,600. Thus, Rs 1.6 lakh would be spent to illuminate each ward. A little over Rs 1.15 crore would be spent on installing lights in all the wards,” the mayor said.

Confirming that the tenders would be awarded circle-wise, Imam said: “Last time, a single agency was given the work for the entire city. Our experience was bitter. So, we have decided to split the work among different agencies this time. As the New Capital circle is biggest in the corporation, two agencies would be awarded the task of illuminating its 29 wards.”

A senior PMC officer said: “After the tenders are awarded, the firms would have to complete their work within a month. We want to ensure proper lighting arrangem-ents ahead of the festivals like Id, Dussehra, Diwali and Chhath.”

He added: “The companies awarded the tenders would have to pay the Patna Electricity Supply Undertaking for the power consumption of the streetlights. They would be allowed to display their advertisements on the electricity poles in lieu of pay- ing some charges to the civic body.”

The residents of the city are cut-up with the civic body for the absence of proper streetlights. Even upscale areas like Patliputra Colony and Kankerbagh lack illumination. The picture at Gardanibagh, Ashiyana Road, Jagdeopath-Rukunpura, Dingha, Ashiyana Road, Rajbanshi Nagar, Patel Nagar, Rajiv Nagar, Indirapuri, Shivpuri, Anisabad, Rajendra Nagar and Patna City areas is equally bleak.

Manorama Gupta, a schoolteacher who resides near Polytechnic Mor in Rajiv Nagar, said: “Rajiv Nagar and Kurji have always been the happy hunting ground of criminals. Though such activities have reduced in the past couple of years, the absence of streetlights enhances the possibility of crime. I have heard about many incidents of chain-snatching and eve-teasing post-dawn as criminals can easily get away after committing petty crime in the dark.”