The Ministry of Energy will present high-tech street lights on the roads

General News of Thursday, August 1, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-08-01

At night, the streets that do not work have gradually become a feature of many roads in the capital.

During the day, many ritual streets in Accra appear to be complemented by markings, signs and streetlights. But at night, while some streets are dimly lit, others are plunged into total darkness, the street lights beautifully mounted not playing their role.

Some street lights have hanging bulbs and others are without bulbs, while others have fallen or have been uprooted.

Streets such as the Accra-Tema Beach Access Road, the N1 Highway, the Accra-Tema Highway and the Accra-Legon Road, to name a few, have installed street lights, some of which do not work.

While municipal bademblies believe that the maintenance of these activities, especially those along the ritual streets, is the sole role of the Ministry of Energy, it begs to oppose.

Sulemana Abubakari, Deputy Director of Energy Distribution, told Citi News: "Street lighting, like any infrastructure, requires maintenance.

This maintenance can be periodic – occasional checks to check that they are working properly. Unfortunately, because it does not last, even when new infrastructures are put in place, you notice that only a few months after their installation, these infrastructures are broken down; they do not work "

"That's what I suggest bademblies outsource to third-party contractors, and then make sure they're serviced regularly, at least quarterly. Thus, their cost may not be as prohibitive as when these infrastructures have not been serviced for a long time, "he added.

But the Ministry of Energy said that this situation would soon be a thing of the past, as it was about to launch a technology-driven initiative that will affect the street lighting of the main streets of the capital.

"The good news for Accra-Tema Beach Road is that the public lighting infrastructure works on these roads have recently been awarded to a group of 3 major contractors, 10 key contractors, to be executed on a key basis. For example, Accra has been zoned into approximately 3 regions for this project. So they will install what I would call smart or smart street lighting systems – smart because the street lighting infrastructure, up to now 39 aircraft had no feedback when the infrastructure broke down. We now want to incorporate a mechanism that informs operators of such facilities that a stump is broken down, that a stump is broken or that a stump is vandalized; so that we can take immediate corrective action to continue to ensure that these facilities continue to serve us better than they do now, "said Abubakari.

"So, if you take all the ceremonial streets, from Independence Avenue, the Beach Road to the Jamestown neighborhood; take the place of Independence towards Tetteh Quarshie and beyond towards Madina; all the roads around LaDMA and, let's face it, all the major municipalities of Accra, the main ones in Accra's central business district, would be covered, "he added.