Ahmedabad: For many citizens, especially women, Ahmedabad’s uneven street lighting is casting a long, dark shadow of worry. They say that although the main roads and residential pockets are well-lit, many connecting stretches and internal roads are without illumination, which is causing concerns over visibility as well as security, and influencing how and where they choose to commute after dark.The concerns over walking to public transport points or commuting are especially heightened with Navratri just round the corner. It will be a time when movement after dark will be at its peak, and which route they take will depend a lot on whether it is well-lit or not.Disha Shah, a professional who moved to Ahmedabad three months ago after living in Mumbai and Bengaluru, said she noticed the problem soon after settling in Vasna. Shah said she now prefers crowded areas at night and avoids walking through poorly lit stretches. “Men loiter, there are lurkers. These are among the reasons why we usually don’t travel or commute at night. We go to popular areas with crowds,” she said.Shah is not alone in shining a torch on the problem. Over the years, many citizens have flagged dark or poorly lit stretches to authorities. There have been complaints about the road from Anjali flyover through Dharnidhar towards Piplaj-Pirana bridge, Khodiyarnagar, stretches behind NID and PRL Road. Bopal residents have pointed to the dark stretch from Bopal Hanuman Temple towards Celebration Centre.Other stretches with the problem include VIP Road towards Ghuma, Shilaj Circle, Nandoli Road and Bhadaj. Citizens have also raised concerns about roads connecting SBR, Rajpath-Rangoli Road and the area behind Karnavati Club, where lights are either missing or are defunct. The Chandkheda-Gandhinagar stretch and Vishwakarma Engineering College Road also make the list.Ironically, it’s not an amenity that AMC has not spent on. The civic body, over the past five years, spent around Rs 117.5 crore to install 34,982 new streetlight poles. This is also the period when complaints about street lights reached 4.33 lakh, with the highest — 1,02,491 — received from South Zone, followed by 84,843 from West Zone and 66,099 from North Zone.Graphic designer Pragya Sherawat highlighted poor lighting at intersections and internal roads. Sherawat said she nearly had an accident at a T-junction without street lights near New Tulip School. She also pointed to the road connecting to the school, saying it remains poorly lit despite traffic movement. “Bylanes around main streets are poorly lit. There are also entire stretches that are not illuminated,” she said.AMC’s dashboard on streetlights shows that 90,974 complaints were recorded between Jan 1 and Oct 6 this year. Of these, 90,131 have been marked as resolved, with an average closure time of 1.9 days.Amdavadis, however, say that complaint resolution does not necessarily reflect the experience of navigating dark or poorly lit stretches.Too many maintenance contractors“Citadelume India Pvt Ltd handled citywide operation and maintenance contract from Jan 2020 to Jan 2025. After the contract expired, AMC issued temporary zone-wise tenders to keep the system running through multiple agencies,” a source said. The civic body is currently working on a Rs 500-crore tender to consolidate the services under a single contractor. “However, in the interim arrangement, there is a concern over whether smaller vendors have the equipment, manpower and technical capacity to maintain such a large network. Their capacity and wherewithal also need to be assessed before assigning them work,” the source said.Under the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, complaints about faulty street lights on main roads must be resolved within 24 hours, while those on internal roads must be resolved within 48 hours, an AMC official said. An automated system has been proposed to track and meet these timelines more efficiently.Photo Quote:84,843North-West4,14447,425South-West3,49538,205South7,3351,02,491North3,32366,099Central1,90945,661Total
