Safety Concerns Surface As Popular Park Suffers From Light Issues

CHENNAI: Notwithstanding Greater Chennai Corporation’s (GCC’s) repeated efforts to ensure 100 per cent illumination across the city, intermittent lighting in public spaces continues to raise safety concerns among residents and users, particularly in parks and residential neighbourhoods.

The issue is particularly visible at Rayala Nagar park in Ramapuram, one of the larger neighbourhood parks in the area, which is used by hundreds of residents every day. Park-users and residents said several lights inside and around the park do not function consistently, leaving portions of the premises poorly lit during the evening hours.

“Hundreds of people come here every day for walking, exercise and other activities. When some of the lights go off, parts of the park become quite dark. It creates a sense of insecurity, especially for women, senior citizens and those who stay back in the evening,” said Ramraj, a regular park-user.

Sumathi, another resident, said the problem was not simply about visibility but also about safety. “The park is used by many people in the mornings and evenings. Lighting should be one of the basic facilities in such a public space. If the lights keep switching off or remain non-functional, people naturally become concerned about their safety,” she said.

Residents said the lighting problem was particularly noticeable on some stretches inside the park and around its peripheral areas, and urged the civic body to inspect the electrical infrastructure rather than attending to individual complaints on a temporary basis.

The concerns come at a time when GCC has stepped up inspections to identify non-functional lights. The civic body maintains more than 3 lakh lights, including streetlights as well as lights in parks, playgrounds and burial grounds, and says its remote group monitoring system enables officials to identify non-burning streetlights and alert engineers for repairs.

A recent GCC inspection had found 1,817 lights non-functional out of 3,11,285 across the city. The inspection covered not just roads but also parks, bus stands, flyovers, subways and other public spaces.

The Corporation subsequently said another field inspection on September 16 identified 2,079 non-burning lights out of 3,11,285 and that steps had been initiated to restore them.

However, residents argue that the challenge is not merely identifying faulty lights but ensuring that repairs remain effective. GCC itself provides dedicated complaint channels for non-burning streetlights and asks residents to report such problems through its grievance system, including 1913.

For regular users of places such as Rayala Nagar park, the demand is straightforward: lights that remain functional throughout the hours when the public use these spaces, rather than repeated repairs after complaints.

A local GCC official in ward 155 said they would look into the complaints on park lighting and the problems would be rectified at the earliest.