Govt directs EESL to pay Rs 39 cr fine over faulty streetlights

Bhubaneswar: The state housing and urban development department has asked Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) to pay Rs 39.59 crore as a warranty claim for thousands of defective LED streetlights and control systems installed across urban local bodies of Odisha, officials said.In a recent letter, the urban development department accused EESL of failing to replace faulty fixtures despite repeated notices. “Despite issuance of several notices, EESL has failed to replace defective lights and equipment installed during the contract period,” the department said.A joint field survey found 45,489 LED streetlights and 2,509 centralised control and monitoring systems to be defective and requiring immediate replacement.

The department has now asked the PSU to reimburse the full replacement cost, exercising the seven-year warranty clause under the contract.The streetlighting project covering 109 ULBs across Odisha was terminated in June 2023 after EESL failed to meet installation and maintenance obligations. The govt said it does reserve the right to raise additional claims if more failures emerge during the warranty period.

As per the survey report prepared by the respective civic bodies, the top ULBs with a high number of defective lights are Puri, Khurda and Jharsuguda. Puri has 5,498 defective lights, while Khurda has 1,645 lights, Jharsuguda has 1,441 lights, Koraput has 1,140 lights, Sundargarh has 972 lights, Rayagada has 672 faulty lights and Jatni has 639 lights.Clusters covering coastal, western and southern Odisha collectively account for the bulk of defects.

Officials said the defects included non-glowing streetlights, lights remaining active continuously and malfunctioning control units, which point to severe gaps in operation and maintenance.The termination order in 2023 already flagged a continuing dismal picture of non-glowing lights and non-working control systems. The department further noted that EESL had not submitted any concrete plan of action for remedial measures and even expressed its inability to continue maintenance activities, prompting the contract’s cancellation.With the latest demand, the state has moved to recover costs for what is one of the largest public streetlighting retrofit failures in the state, according to sources. Despite repeated attempts to contact EESL for comment on the matter through calls and messages, no response could be obtained from the PSU.During 2014-15, the housing and urban development department initiated the process to replace the erstwhile fluorescent bulbs for streetlights with energy-efficient LED ones.

Accordingly, EESL and Neev Energy were selected to execute the job. Each ULB in the meantime was asked to conduct an audit of streetlights to find defects.In Bhubaneswar, though the lights were fitted between 2014 and 2017, no energy audit was done till 2023. Only in 2023, the city civic body hired an energy auditor to inspect streetlights, following which the glitches were detected. “We submitted our report after the audit for taking action,” a civic body official said.