Who profits when streetlights fail, go dark for months in city

Bhopal: The city’s much-touted smart lighting project has slipped into darkness, leaving residents frustrated and fearful.

According to Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) city engineer Ashish Shrivastava, he estimates, nearly 10% of the 60,000 street lights across the state capital are not functional. “Much of the disruption is owing to on-going infra development projects like metro and road construction (bypass road).”

But when the 20,000 smart city-operated lights are factored in, the picture is even bleaker. As of Monday, 24% of these smart lights were out of order, exposing large stretches of the city to unsafe conditions at night.

Off the record, officials admit the crisis stems from mismanagement. A senior source revealed that the private operator contracted to run the smart lighting system has not paid its employees and it has affected repair work. “The profit model is tied to energy savings, but when lights don’t work, who is auditing?” one former smart city official asked, pointing out that the smart city department itself has been reduced to barely half a dozen staff.

Residents say the problem is not just statistics but lived reality. In BMC zone 21, a street light complaint has been pending for over three months. “The officer promised resolution overnight,” said one resident, “but three months later, nothing has changed.” In that time, two major accidents have occurred on the BRTS corridor, including one at the gate of local MLA’s house at 45 Bungalows, where a car was crushed between two trucks at night.

BRTS Link Road 1 has recorded the highest number of failures with 26 outages. Meanwhile, Gautam Nagar holds the longest unresolved case, with a street light failure persisting since 1 July 2023 — over 1,045 days in darkness.

Data reviewed by TOI shows a disturbing pattern: areas like Vidhya Nagar (63% failure), Link Road 2 and 3 (62% failure), and Ayodhya Bypass (51% failure) are among the worst hit. Even high-profile stretches such as VIP Road and Habibganj station remain poorly lit.

For residents, the message is clear. when your neighbourhood street light fails in Bhopal, don’t expect it to be fixed anytime soon. Three months and counting, the city’s streets remain in the shadows.