Jalna to be the 1st Urban Local Body in Maharashtra to have LED street lights

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the administration of Ministry of Power, Government of India (GoI) has announced that it has signed a MoU with the Municipal Council of Jalna for Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP). Under the MoU, EESL will replace 14,500 street lights with LED street lights in the town of Jalna. Thus, making Jalna Municipal Council the first Urban Local Body in Maharashtra to have LED street lights.

The agreement was signed by EESL regional manager Mr. Dipak Kokate and CEO of Jalna Municipal Council Mr. Deepak Pujari in the presence of Hon’ble minister for water supply and sanitation (Govt. of Maharashtra) Mr. Babanrao Lonikar - he is the guardian minister for the district of Jalna.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Babanrao Lonikar said that- “thanks to the street light replacement by EESL, the Jalna municipal council will be saving up to 50 to 55% on their electricity bills. The Jalna municipal council was facing an acute shortage of funds while paying for the street lights. Hence, we decided to intervene and had a meeting with Hon’ble state energy minister Mr. Chandrashekhar Bawankule. The minister instantly agreed for the implementation of the LED scheme. Thanks to EESL, the town of Jalna will soon get effective street lighting.”

Mr.Deepak Pujari said - “The MoU will definitely ease the financial burden on the municipal council. At present, the outstanding payment to the state electricity distribution company for the last four years was Rs13 crore. However, thanks to the EESL street light programme, we will now be able to save at least 50% of the electricity bills.”

EESL replaces the conventional street lights with LEDs at its own costs (without any need for municipalities to invest) and the consequent reduction in energy and maintenance cost of the municipality is used to repay EESL over a period of time.  The contracts that EESL enters into with municipalities are typically of 7 years duration where it not only guarantees a minimum energy saving but also provides free replacements and maintenance of lights at no additional cost to the municipality

“The cost of the project is approximately, Rs7.87 cr. The project period is of seven years- during which EESL will take up the operation and maintenance of the entire town of Jalna. This will be immensely beneficial for the Local Urban Body- both financially and in terms of social facilities. While EESL will recover the cost in the project period through the savings of the Municipal Council,” said Mr. Dipak Kokate.

Under SLNP scheme, which was inaugurated in January 2015, over 8 lakh LED street lights have already been installed across the country. This is leading to a daily energy savings of over 2.9 lakh kWh and has helped reduce CO2 emissions by more than 230 tonnes.