Faulty streetlights on Beach Road to be replaced soon

KOZHIKODE: The corporation will float fresh tenders to hire a contractor for the maintenance of streetlights on Beach Road that have stopped working for the past many months.
The move was taken after the civic bodyreceived favourable judgment from the district court here against the contractor entrusted with the work.
The court rejected the petition of the contractor seeking extension of tenure of the contract inked with the civic body for the maintenance of the streetlight in return of allowing the display of advertisements .
The civic body will float tenders to replace the faulty streetlights with new ones. The civic body decided to float tenders on the basis of getting legal opinion from the Corporation Standing Council. The meeting of the Finance Standing Committee held on August 2014 had asked the officials concerned to take steps to float tenders to entrust new contractor to carry out the annual maintenance of streetlights.
Though the civic body had first thought of introducing the solar streetlights on the stretch on an experimental basis, the plan was later abandoned sensing the practical difficulty in the execution of the project. The tussle between the civic body and the contractor resulted in non-repair of faulty streetlights that has been forcing the people thronging Kozhikode beach to leave the place soon after the sun set.
M Mohanan, public works standing committee chairman said that the tenders will be floated to entrust a contractor to replace the faulty streetlights and to carry out annual maintenance works. "The contractor approached the District Court despite the tenure of the contract had already completed. Finance standing committee headed by deputy mayor P T Abdul Latheef will formulate rules and agreement to hire new contractor. We hope to find a permanent solution to the existing problem of nonfunctioning of streetlights on the stretch with the awarding of tender to new contractor,'' he said.
Meanwhile, Puthussery Viswanathan, secretary, Residents' Apex council of Kozhikode said that the city denizens have got limited open space to take their family out and Kozhikode Beach is one among them. "We have already brought the issue to the attention of the corporation but the authorities concerned are yet to take action in this regard. The RACK has approached the civic body after representatives of various residential associations raised complaints about the problem faced by the people due to the non-functioning of streetlights at the beach that is forcing them to leave the place soon after the sunset,'' he said.