GHMC To Retain EESL Services for 2 Months
With no new tenders invited and widespread outages affecting over 5.25 lakh street lights, the civic body seeks temporary continuity of services.
Hyderabad: With the contract of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) ending on April 30, and no fresh tenders invited, the GHMC has proposed to continue availing its services for two more months. The GHMC standing committee approved the proposal on Thursday.
The corporation had earlier considered directly engaging the vendors to whom EESL had outsourced the work, but procurement regulations made such an arrangement unfeasible. “Initiating a fresh vendor onboarding process within such a short window is also not possible,” the official explained.
Currently, 23 engineers and ward-wise staff are handling street light maintenance. The GHMC has over 5.25 lakh street lights, many of which were non-functional even before the EESL contract expired, causing inconvenience to commuters navigating poorly lit roads.
Persistent issues—such as faults in the Centralised Control and Monitoring System (CCMS), wiring defects and staff failing to respond to complaints—have added to the challenge. Even before the contract expiry, there had been delays in payments to EESL, with GHMC liking the payment hold-up to poor performance.
Whether new tenders will be invited or the EESL contract will be extended remains a decision for the state government. Along with the EESL proposal, the Standing Committee also approved 11 other proposals related to developmental works.