CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, March 16: Many areas in Ranchi get submerged in darkness after dusk as street lights in these areas tend to be non-functional. One of the prime examples is the Namkum flyover where the street lights have been non-functional for last one week.
Sandeep Nayak, a resident of Namkum said that it becomes very difficult to travel at night through the flyover. “I use the road everyday while returning from the office and since last one week the streetlights have not been working. At night, it becomes very difficult as it is part of the highway and trucks and lorries drive rashly. Without proper illumination people will tend to cause an accident,” he said.
A few months ago, cases of stone-pelting and snatching near Namkum Flyover were also reported in Namkum Police Station and with less illumination, the chances of such crimes have only increased.
Lagatar24.com tried to contact Saurabh Kumar Keshri, Assistant Engineer for Street Lights (RMC) but there has been no response from his side.
Apart from Namkum, localities such as Harmu dumping yard, Kokar, Hotwar and Kusai are some of the many areas which are also facing the same issues as the street lights in these areas have been functional for the past few days.
A resident of Khoratoli, Kokar said that the potholes have always been an issue in this area and now even the streetlights are causing havoc. “The area needs a lot more street lights anyhow and the ones that are present are not working most of the time. We have contacted the Municipal Corporation and hope they fix it soon,” he said.
Similarly, Abhishek, a resident of Kusai expressed the same situation and said that the authorities should look up to it. “Not only for pedestrians but also for people on bikes it becomes difficult to commute at night. The street lights work at times but most of the time it is not working,” he added.
RMC has given a contract to Brite Neon, the street light complaint redressal agency to repair and service all the street lights in the city. Preeti Sinha, an official from the agency has said that we are working on the complaints one by one and making sure that all the street lights are repaired as soon as possible.
“As soon as we get a complaint, we add it to the list and tend to work on it as soon as we can. Currently, we have around 400 to 500 complaints and we are working on them one by one. Many times we get multiple complaints from a particular locality so that is why the number of complaints goes up,” she added.
