Bhubaneswar, June 28: The state housing and urban development department has asked the municipal corporation to submit the list of roads thatdo not have street lights.

The move aims to light up the roads to ensure commuters' safety. According to the order, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will take a survey and submit the list of the roads without street lights by the end of this month, following which the department will prepare a programme implementation plan.

On the backdrop of such a move, The Telegraph takes a city tour and finds out a major stretch that connects Fire Station with Jagamara and a few other internal roads in the localities of Damana, Rasulgarh, Sailashree Vihar, Niladri Vihar, Dumduma and Khandagiri are yet to have street lights.

"The administration has constructed a seamless road between Fire Station and Jagamara. The stretch has nearly five humps on both sides of the road, which are not marked properly making it, at times, difficult for the commuters to negotiate. Moreover, in the absence of street lights, this stretch often turns out to be an accident-prone zone," said Birabhadra Mohanty, a shop owner on this stretch.

Another commuter Manas Mishra, a student, said he had met with an accident on this stretch few months ago. "Besides, the unmarked humps and absence of street lights, this particular roadside has become almost a dumping ground as heaps of construction and demolition materials can spotted here any day. I had rammed into such a heap few months ago and met with an accident," said Mishra.

Residents of Sailashree Vihar, Niladri Vihar and a few other localities also complain of inadequate street lighting - which, according to them, provides a "perfect setting" for criminal activities. "At night hours, it is difficult to pass through the road, which leads to my house, because of the assembly of criminals and hoodlums," said Sailashree Vihar resident Narayan Ojha.

Khandagiri resident Jayanta Patra, too, said the absence of street lights on the stretch between Khandagiri Square and Ghatikia had turned it into a den of criminal elements at night. "A doctor couple had been murdered in this locality in 2015. Such crime will go on if the administration does not take any prompt step in terms of proper illumination," said Patra, a retired government employee.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they had engaged all three divisional zonal commissioners to identify the stretches - be it the main ones or internals for installation of street lights. "They are preparing the list, and we will submit the data to the government to get funds for installation of the lights," said Jena.

Jena said the identified stretches would be illuminated with energy efficient LED bulbs. "We have planned to replace all mercury street lights with the energy efficient LED bulbs. We have already installed 35,000 such street lights so far and reduced the power bills by 80 per cent. We will install LED bulbs across the city in the next one year," said the mayor, adding that the identified stretches would be lit up in the next three months.