File picture of a corporation worker repairing a street light in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 26: Once the sun sets, darkness grips several major roads here as street lights on these stretches remain dysfunctional.

The Khandagiri-Gandamunda road, parts of Kalinga Hospital-Patia road and streets such as Big Bazaar Square at Patia face forced black out. Important roads, including the road connecting Fire Station Square to Ekamra Square are yet to get street lights.

The Khandagiri-Gandamunda stretch is part of the Pokhariput-Khandagiri road. While the stretch between Pokhariput and Bhaktamadhunagar is illuminated, the absence of street lights makes the road after Bhaktamadhunagar dangerous.

“If you are coming from the Pokhariput-end, you are likely to run into excavated stretches of the public works department,’’ said Damodar Mohanty of Gandamunda.

“Last year, a couple from Pokhariput was chased by snatchers. Though they had managed to escape with minor injury, they fell on the road as they tried to flee. With the street lights playing hide-and-seek, such incidents may happen again,” said Babuli Swain, a shopkeeper from the market near Lingaraj Vihar.

“Several street lights between Kalinga Hospital Square and Chandrasekharpur police station and those near Patia Big Bazaar and adjoining areas do not glow. Three days ago, a team had arrived from the electrical section of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation,” said Sanjay Kumar Sethi, councillor of ward No. 2.

Councillor of Nageswar Tangi — ward No. 52 —Nrupa Kishore Nayak said: “There is lack of regular service as electrical technicians are not coming for their monthly rounds to check and inspect the electrical fittings. In the past, we had asked the authorities to keep aside some money from the ward budget and purchase more specialised vehicles for repair of the street lights, but nothing has happened so far.”

“Of seven vehicles with hydraulic ladder, only two are working. As the city is going to have seven more wards post-election, there is need to have more such vehicles,” Nayak said.

Assistant engineer, electrical, Ajit Kumar Behera admitted that there was a need for more vehicles with hydraulic ladder to fix the defective street lights. “We have seven such vehicles, but at present only two are working. One returned from the workshop today, so there will be three from tomorrow,” Behera said.

Behera, however, said a growing city required more than 10 vehicles with hydraulic ladder to repair and maintain street lights.

Adding that the Khandagiri-Gandamunda stretch would be illuminated tomorrow by replacing a transformer, he said the stretch between Fire Station and Ekamra Square would have street lights once the Central Electricity Supply Utility approved the budget.

On November 14, chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated two street light projects between Stewart School and Power House Square and Damana and DAV School Square that were lying unused for past three months.