Jumbangla Desk: The distance from Kalpana intersection of Rajshahi to Talaimari road is about two kilometers. Rajshahi City Corporation (RASIK) installed 130 street light poles on the divider of this road in 2022. Each pole has 13 lamps. About 3.5 crore rupees have been spent on it. Calculation shows that every 15 meters one lamp pole. Although the beauty of the night has been appreciated, questions have also been raised about the use of overhead street lights.

There are lamps made in the pattern of Rajmukut on another 12 km road of the city. Apart from this, there are expensive street lamps on every major road in the city. There are 18 tall high mast poles and floodlights at 17 intersections and squares. The installation of street lamp poles at short distances has increased the electricity cost of the city corporation.

As a result, the street lights that brought the night city into discussion are increasingly becoming a burden for the Rajshahi City Corporation. Electricity consumption has increased due to excess consumption. In the meantime, the bill owed to the company is about Tk 42 crore. On top of that, every week three to five lamps are being lost in each pole. In this situation, the city corporation has planned to light a small number of lights while keeping the beauty and safety intact.

Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner and Rasik Administrator Dr. Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir said that NESCO has an outstanding electricity bill of Tk 42 crore. These have begun to be paid off. It has been decided to stop lighting unnecessary lamps. But the beauty will also be kept intact.

He also said that advice has been sought from the engineering department. How to reduce costs by burning fewer lights. Besides, its alternative plan has also been sought.

Meanwhile, residents of the city complain that ever since the beautifying Rajmukut Batis were installed, incidents of frequent damage have been happening. Currently, on average 3 to 5 lamps do not light on each pole.

A local resident said that the lights are failing almost constantly. Re-planting after a few days it breaks again. He also commented that there has been major corruption in these projects.

The Administrator of the City Corporation said to take further measures after examining the files of installing these lights. Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir said, we have the files of the contractors who have done these works. We have their performance guarantee. Action will be taken on these issues.

It is to be noted that in 2019, the allegation of corruption in the installation of street lights of Rajshahi City Corporation was discussed for the first time. This allegation of additional payment of about Tk 6 crore over the market price against the lamps supplied to Harrow Engineering, a contractor close to the then city mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, is still under investigation by the ACC.