Street lighting on the sly

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

A survey conducted by the Ceylon Electricity Board has revealed that there are more than 300,000 street lights installed throughout the country without proper approval from the relevant authorities, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said.

The Minister addressing the media in Colombo yesterday said that around 700,000 street lights have been installed in the country by 2007. Out of this amount 340,308 have been installed by the Ceylon Electricity Board while 60,000 have been installed by LECO.

However in accordance with latest data there are more than 700,000 street lights in the country. Therefore around 300,000 street lights have been installed without permission from the CEB or LECO. The CEB has to spend millions of funds for supplying electricity for these illegal street lights, Minister Ranawaka added. The CEB has concentrated on replacing Mercury Vapour street lights with low power consuming Sodium Vapour bulbs, the Minister added.