Ahead of Durga Puja, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced revamping street lights across Guwahati with 10,000 new lights released under the 'Street Lighting' project on Wednesday.
Sarma, while addressing a gathering today said, "On this auspicious occasion, we have gathered to admonish the darkness and welcome light. As minister Ashok Singhal informed, we have taken steps to upgrade street lights across Guwahati."
Under the project, the Assam government seeks to install over 20,000 new street lights with provisions to fix problems arising in them within 24 hours, the Chief Minister stated.
"We have tried to keep the street lights in Guwahati upgraded in the last two or three years. As a part of this, in 2023, the Assam government and Guwahati Municipal Corporation jointly constituted a company named 'Guwahati Utility Corporation'. They have been tasked to keep street lights upgraded with the latest state-of-the-art equipment. We want to be able to control the entire street light grid of Guwahati from just one control room," he said.
Sarma added, "There will be an app through which people will be able to register complaints by clicking a geo-tagged image wherever they find street lights not functioning. We will address them immediately. To economize the usage, lights will be brighter around evenings, dimming down towards midnight when people are mostly at home. This will reduce the burden on the public exchequer. We find street lights turned on during the day. Now, only through one button, all lights will be turned off."
The Assam Chief Minister laid down plans to install 20,667 street lights across the city. "In the first phase, we gave our nod to 11,000, of which, 10,000 have already been installed on 944 sub-lanes. This will address a long-pending issue," he mentioned.
Sarma addressed the unplanned development of Guwahati stating that the city faced the brunt of population when it was made a temporary capital after Shillong went to Meghalaya when it was carved out of Assam. Since then, there were no concrete plans to make Guwahati the permanent capital with the people accepting the situation and development going on haphazardly, he said.
As such, the government has had to find ways around to address developmental issues with very little investment for this seen in Guwahati, the Chief Minister said, highlighting the flyover projects reducing traffic congestion at key junctures. He listed the upcoming projects that will help the city's expansion to its outer reaches, with connectivity to North Guwahati through the upcoming river bridge a big boost in that regard.
Sarma further spoke about plans for the installation of 1,000 CCTVs in Guwahati in January next year. This will help put up a fight against rising crime, he further added.