Gurgaon: This is a problem of plenty for new sectors. Drive through the newer sectors along Dwarka Expressway after sunset and the problem is plain to see. While some street lights work, others flicker, switch on and off, or do not light at all. The result is a patchwork of dark stretches on roads that carry daily commuters, visitors and late-night delivery workers.Residents say the faults are not new and that repairs rarely last. Behind the outages, they say, is a similar problem that no single agency is clearly answerable for the lights. “The work is split across many. Roads and green belts are with GMDA, road cleaning with MCM, street lights with HSVP. Then the work will never get done,” Rising Homes RWA president Praveen Malik told TOI.Subrata Dutta, a resident of Experion Heartsong in Sector 108, said that the stretch between sectors 108 and 102, along the Dwarka Expressway, is among the worst affected. Dutta has raised multiple complaints on the civic portal. “Three different teams, GMDA, HSVP and MCG, are involved. Each says ‘this is not my area, it belongs to them,’ and that is where the problem happens. Even when they repair a light, it goes faulty again,” Dutta said.Residents say the risk is higher because parts of the corridor are open and thinly populated, and stray cattle wander onto the carriageway at night. Some lights “flicker like Diwali lights,” he said, while others either are missing or broken. “I drove through upper Dwarka Expressway and found a major stretch unlit. When we complain, they fix that one light that we reported but don’t check the next ten ahead of it. Residents should not have to spot the faults. If it’s their job, they should do it themselves proactively,” Dutta said.Vivek Prakash, a resident of New Town Heights, said earlier the lights on the whole stretch used to work. “Now many have fused and only a few here and there work. It feels primitive, like something from the old days, with sodium lights instead of LED lights which will also save the power bills. We have been hearing these will be replaced but nothing has happened for the last six years. These days lit societies and Diwali decorations mask the problem. But with winter coming and foggy days, if someone is driving and a person suddenly comes in front, he won’t see them as the stretch becomes dark,” Prakash said.While maintenance of streetlights in sectors 58-67, 81-95 and 99-115 falls under HSVP, GMDA is taking care of streetlight infrastructure between sectors 68-80.The residents, however, said that they have been raising the concern about fixing responsibility for long. President of Rising Homes RWA Praveen Malik said the faults leave dark patches rather than a uniformly unlit road. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The problem is that multiple agencies are there. Instead, there should be one department,” he said.An HSVP official acknowledged the state of the infrastructure, much of which was laid over 15 years ago, but said the authority’s hands are tied and it is only responsible for maintaining the existing infrastructure, and upgradation has to be undertaken either by municipal corporations or by the metropolitan authority.“Much of the network in Sectors 81 to 95 still uses old sodium lamps. The infrastructure has aged and it needs an overhaul. While we are carrying out the routine maintenance, we cannot carry out any upgradation. We have sent a proposal to MCG and MCM to take over streetlights in their respective jurisdictions. GMDA had earlier declined to take over the maintenance,” the HSVP official said.Earlier this year, the metropolitan authority had discussed taking over the streetlights from HSVP. However, it was later decided that MCG and MCM would take them over. A GMDA official said, “It was decided that MCG and MCM will take over the streetlights from HSVP in new sectors. What we already had is with us and we are not taking over the rest.”Meanwhile, the senior official of MCG said that the process is still at a preliminary stage. “In principle, it was decided that we will start the takeover process and a joint survey was planned for after Diwali. But we will discuss the matter at a higher level as well. We want to assess the conditions of assets before accepting them. We have asked for their electricity connection status, including any defaults and dues,” the MCG official said.
