Cuttack: The municipal corporation is running against a tight deadline over the project to replace old high-pressure sodium vapour street lights with light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The civic body has decided to complete the work in 100 working days. It will have to rush with the process as the deadline is ending on May 11.

On December 30, 2017, the corporation had started replacing the conventional bulbs in the street lights with LED bulbs. This was after the state-run Odisha Infrastructure Development Fund (OIDF) appointed an independent engineer for the implementation of the street lighting project for the five municipal corporations in the state. Under the Rs 10.82 crore project for Cuttack ,16069 conventional bulbs is to be replaced with LED bulbs which last long and are energy efficient. But just 40 per cent of the target had been achieved so far. Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra said on Wednesday that nearly 6500 sodium vapour bulbs had been replaced with LED bulbs so far.

"Things had slowed down due to holidays. But the project as targeted will be completed within the stipulated 100 working days," Mohapatra said. A civic body source said after the review of the progress a decision was made to change the LED bulbs on certain stretches of main roads where the authorities had already replaced the conventional bulbs with LEDs.

Chairman of the civic body's standing committee for electricity Ranjan Kumar Biswal said the decision was taken for stretches of roads were the street lights were dim. According to the parameters, 90wt LED bulbs were fixed where the road width was 30ft. Similarly, for 20ft and 10ft roads, 60 wt and 25 wt LED bulbs, respectively were used.

"During the review, it was noticed that in several places 25wt LED bulbs were used on the stretches where the road width was 20ft, hence giving less illumination in the locality," Biswal said. "The 25wt LED bulbs will be replaced by 60wt LED bulbs in these places," he said.

A civic body electricity division official said LED lights had so far been installed in Markatnagar, Bidanasi, Sri Vihar, Tulasipur, Chandi Mandir, Link Road, Badambadi, Dolamunda, Bajrakabati, Ranihat and College Square thoroughfares.

Lighting work has been undertaken on main roads so far. The remaining streetlights in sub-roads and other streets in the city will be taken up subsequently. The project would cover all 59 wards.