Rajahmundry: To help the gram panchayats save on power bills with the saved money helping in the development of amenities for people, West Godavari administration will install as many as 2.64 lakh LED bulbs for street lights in 909 gram panchayats in the district.
The Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of AP has been entrusted with the task of supervising the installation of LED bulbs. Accordingly, four vendors have been selected through bids with each vendor being given one revenue division out of four in the district. They include Eluru, Narasapuram, Kovvur and Jangareddygudem. It is the responsibility of the vendors to invest, fix and maintain the bulbs for a period of 10 years.
The vendors will fix Centralised Control Monitoring System boxes with self-controlled operating system along with inbuilt energy meter. They will take into account average monthly consumption of power and tariff for each gram panchayat. Out of it, they will take 50 per cent of the amount with each LED bulb designed to save 50 per cent of power consumption. The vendors thus collect 50 per cent of the power charge every month for several years until they recover the total expenditure incurred on purchasing, installing and maintaining the LED bulbs.
Authorities said that when compared to conventional bulbs, the LED bulbs consume less power while lasting for a very long period that would help the gram panchayats bring down the cost of replacing the burnt bulbs at frequent intervals. Nedcap West Godavari district manager D.V. Prasad said, “We expect to complete installation of 2.64 lakh LED bulbs in 909 gram panchayats in West Godavari by end of January or February so that the gram panchayats can save money on power consumption and use it for other developmental works.”
