Bengaluru: Mysore Palace Board which looks after the maintenance of the famous Amba Vilas Palace as well as its illumination is open to switching over to energy saving modes provided a company comes forward to provide Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs that emit gold coloured light.
“Earlier, two reputed companies provided samples of LED bulbs but they were rejected by our technical team as it was emitting silver coloured light,” an officer of the board told DC.
Any visitor to Mysuru would not like to miss the illuminated palace which is lit up with around one lakh incandescent bulbs with 15 watt power on public and national holidays. The majestic palace is illuminated on all ten days during the ten-day Dasara festival and for two hours and 45 minutes on Sundays for the sake of visiting tourists. Although, the incandescent bulbs are being replaced by CLF and LED bulbs, the good old incandescent bulbs are very much required to illuminate Mysuru Palace. However, the power of bulbs has now been reduced to 15 watt from 40. It is not possible to reduce the power further as the golden glow it emits may be lost, the officer said.
Hitherto, Mysore Lamps, a state-owned public sector company, was supplying the incandescent bulbs to illuminate the palace. After the company stopped production of these bulbs, a Hyderabad-based company has been supplying around 20,000 to 25,000 bulbs every year to replace the fused bulbs. Incidentally, these incandescent bulbs which have to be screwed into the holder, are only used in Mysuru palace. Except for the illumination, the board had long ago switched to LED lights for the garden and office to save energy. But they have not been able to replace the incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. The golden colour emitted from the incandescent bulbs has added grandeur to the whole palace. “The board can save lakhs of rupees on power bills every year provided a company supplies LED bulbs that emit golden coloured light.”
