Ameet Satam, the Bharatiya Janata Party corporator who was on a hunger strike to demand better street lighting, ended his fast on Thursday, following a commitment by the city's civic chief to make the streets brighter and safer.

The problem of poor lighting on the streets was studied by the citizens' forum in Andheri which found that the level of illumination in many places was less than half the requirement.

The forum – an alliance of about 30 advanced locality management (ALM) groups and other residents associations – surveyed the Andheri area as well as some select stretches in other parts of the city and found that the lighting and facilities were below par in all these places.

Poor lighting on the streets is a hazard for motorists and pedestrians, and has become a larger concern these days on account of the anti-social and criminal activities that happen in poorly-lit areas.

The Citizens' Forum has proposed installation of a total 97 lamps of 150W and 70W costing Rs64,000 and Rs60,000 respectively, inclusive of all expenses.

Municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte has written to Satam that the technical proposal would be referred to the Indian Institute of Technoloy (IIT) and group leaders in the civic body to work out a plan to fix the loopholes and also formulate a policy for the entire city.

Thursday was the eighth day of the BJP corporator's hunger protest.

The survey on the level of illumination took into account factors like the width and length of the road, the position of the lamps, the quality and power of the lights and height of the light poles.

Among the areas surveyed were SV Road and Linking Road in Bandra, Annie Besant Road in Worli, Amar Mahal junction in Chembur, spots in Colaba, Juhu, Goregaon, Borivli and Mulund, said Prashant Mavani, convenor of the Citizens' Forum.