Hyderabad: Even as civic officials remain preoccupied with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and the proposed Core Urban Region (Integrated Governance) Bill, Hyderabad’s streetlights are quietly going dark.A GHMC survey has found that more than 70% of the city’s LED streetlights and nearly all Centralised Control and Monitoring System (CCMS) boxes have reached the end of their service life. Yet, the fresh citywide operation and maintenance tender has remained pending for months, leaving replacement and repair works in limbo.More than four months have passed since the state govt accorded administrative sanction for a ₹1,341-crore contract to maintain 7.6 lakh LED streetlights across the three municipal corporations over the next 10 years. Despite the approval, the tender is yet to be floated, delaying replacement of ageing infrastructure and repairs to faulty equipment.The impact is already visible across several parts of the city. Residents in the IT corridor, including Kondapur, Osmannagar, Tellapur and Nanakramguda, estimate that nearly 30% of streetlights in their localities are non-functional. The situation is worse in pockets such as Banjara Hills Road No. 12, Goshamahal and MLA Colony, where residents say more than half the streetlights are either defunct or provide inadequate illumination.Maintenance has become increasingly difficult since the contract with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) expired more than a year ago. In the absence of a dedicated maintenance agency, GHMC has been grappling with shortages of LED fittings, drivers and CCMS components, while inadequate manpower has further slowed repair works.“We will float a fresh tender within the next few days. Although it was originally scheduled for June, the process got delayed. There will be no further postponement, and we expect works to resume within the next two months,” a senior official in the municipal administration & urban development (MAUD) department said.Residents say the prolonged outages are affecting safety, particularly in peripheral areas and rapidly expanding suburbs.“The stretches between Gopanpally and Kollur and Vattinagulapally and Osmannagar have remained dark for several weeks. Women and senior citizens avoid walking after sunset, while motorists struggle to spot potholes. Despite repeated complaints, the issue remains unresolved,” said Ramana Eshwaragiri, president of the Tellapur Neighbourhood Association.Civic activists say the city needs a systematic replacement programme instead of waiting for widespread failures. “Most LED lights installed several years ago are nearing the end of their life cycle. Without an appointed maintenance agency, large parts of the city continue to remain in darkness because faulty lights are not being replaced. The three corporations must expedite the pending tender before the outages become even more widespread,” said Harish Daga, a resident of Himayatnagar.
