Sodium vapour lamps give way to mercury vapour lamps at Bistupur. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Sept. 23: The steel city?s characteristic golden hue (read, sodium vapour-lit streets) will soon be history. Once again, the silver aurora will dominate its night skies.

Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (Jusco) has decided to replace the sodium vapour lamps on all the major thoroughfares with metal allied lamps in the days to come. The town electrical department of this subsidiary of Tata Steel, which looks after the municipal and allied services here, is preparing a blueprint of the possible locations where these lamps could be fitted. Jusco has already put-up 18 metal allied lamps on the stretch that leads to Bistupur roundabout. Each lamp costs approximately Rs 8,000 with complete fittings.

?The metal allied lamps (manufactured by Philips) are different from mercury vapour lamps and give a natural daylight ambience with clear visibility. It is with this objective that we have decided to make the replacements. The metal allied lamps at Bistupur roundabout have been put in place for trial. Depending on the response from the commuters, more such lamps would be installed on other thoroughfares,? said A.N. Singh, chief, power business, Jusco.

Officials of the town electrical department revealed that the metal allied lamps are nowadays easily available, as there are several manufacturers. ?The life span of metal allied lamps are also more as compared to sodium vapour lamps. They have more illumination capacity and can even glow at low voltage,? said a senior official of the town electrical department. According to him, the lamps used at Bistupur roundabout are of 250 watt.

He explained further that with Jusco taking the initiative to widen the roads, the metal allied lamps would provide a perfect ambience to the commuters. The officials, however, said the sodium vapour lamps would not be phased out completely. They would be used in places where the lamps have been damaged or has lost their glow.

Sources in Jusco told The Telegraph that the sodium vapour lamps had replaced the erstwhile mercury vapour lamps as they proved to be cost effective and required less maintenance. The metal allied lamps are used in stadiums for floodlight tournaments, they said.