A car passes through a dark street in Ranchi on Monday. Fluorescent bulbs will soon light up all streets in the state capital. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Feb. 9: The Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) is once again in the news, albeit for a good reason.

It has prepared a blueprint for the facelift of the capital in the wake of the 34th National Games, which after being postponed for the fourth time is now scheduled for mid-2009.

Installation of compact fluorescent lamps — better known as CFLs — in every lane and by-lane of the city will kick off what officials call the civic body’s gargantuan makeover drive. “The thoroughfares in the capital are well lit by high-mast lights or sodium vapour lamps, but streets and lanes are either poorly lit or dark. Ranchi being the state’s capital, its residents should not be forced to grope their way in the dark. We have decided to light up every street,” RMC chief executive officer (CEO) Rahul Purwar told The Telegraph.

The civic body plans to intersperse vapour lamps with CFLs to ensure lighting, which is both economic and effective. Compact fluorescent bulbs consume less energy, have longer life and can be mounted on any ordinary electrical fixture. For a bonus, the illumination is much brighter than incandescent lamps.

For a given light output, CFLs use between one-fifth and one-third of the power of equivalent incandescent lamps. The luminous efficacy of CFL sources is typically 60 to 72 lumens per watt, versus 8 to 17 lumens per watt for incandescent lamps.

RMC officials said fluorescent lamps use less power to supply the same amount of light as an incandescent lamp. “So, they decrease energy consumption and the environmental effects of electric power generation,” one of them said.

The civic body plans to conduct a survey to ascertain the number of CFLs that will be required to light up every street of the capital. “Once the survey is done, we can estimate the cost,” Purwar said.

While the purchase price of an integrated CFL is typically 3 to 10 times greater than that of an equivalent incandescent lamp, the extended lifetime and lower energy use compensate for the high initial cost.

Besides lighting up lanes and by-lanes, the RMC is also going overboard to keep the capital clean. “Plans are afoot to start a daily door-to-door garbage collection system. We are roping in NGOs for the purpose. The project will commence within a month,” the CEO said.

For the makeover drive, the RMC is likely to rope in banks, PSUs and other agencies. They will be entrusted with the task of beautifying city roundabouts and installing traffic signals and glow signs before the Games begin.