Automatic street lamps from next year

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

The Power and Energy Ministry said that it will install automatic street lamps islandwide from next year in an effort to conserve energy and save financial resource. "Using ordinary street lamps will be stopped in the near future.

'These automatic street lamps will be switched on at 6.00 pm and go off at 6.00 am automatically," ministry sources said. Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said the Ceylon Electricity Board incurs an annual loss of over Rs. two billion due to power costs on street lights.

Minister Ranawaka said that a majority of the street lights were illegal. Out of the 700,000 street lights islandwide, 400,000 were illegal, he said. According to the minister the Lanka Electricity Company (Private Limited) has introduced these automatic street lamps as a local product and they have to spend Rs. 5,000 per street lamp.