Surprising truth!! Dark stretches more than light stretches in Chennai!!
Posted on: 17/Nov/2023 9:35:15 AM
Would you believe the fact that the city of Chennai has got about 152 dark spots?
Yes it is true. If you are a resident of Chennai, then you might have come across lots of dark stretches in the city without any streetlights. It is really shocking that GCC or Greater Chennai Corporation has been slow in procuring 3000 street lights under phase-2 of Nirbhaya Scheme plus it has also not renewed the maintenance contract of branded lights. This has led to many dark stretches now.
In the first week of November, GCC has found in atleast 1375 locations in the city the street lights were not working. According to an official belonging to the electrical dept of GCC it was clear that GCC has not renewed the maintenance contract for the street lights. Truth is that GCC directly maintains street lights in the core places in Chennai as the companies refuse the maintenance services.
It was brought out by a resident from Madipakkam in south Chennai that she used flash lights from her mobile phone for about 150m to reach her house. The street lights have not been there for years together now. Another resident from Nanganallur spoke about how the bulbs have been fixed to the poles and how there were no street lights. This has led to stretches of darkness in between.
The dark stretches would make women unsafe and this was pointed out by Aswathy Dilip, MD Institute of Transportation and Development. It is noteworthy that the spacing of the lights must be thrice the height of the light fixture if not there would be dark spots in between. She added that Greater Chennai Corporation must also set up lights on the pavements and these lights must be shorter.
About 152 dark spots have been identified in Chennai by the GCC`s gender lab study. In the study about 2400 women took part and about 15percent said that the streetlights were inadequate.
It was later confirmed by the superintending engineer belonging to electrical dept of GCC, Mr. K. Vijayakumar that most of the gender lab recommendations have been executed by GCC.
