falling tree branches

collapsing bridges

BEST

pedestrians

BEST has removed 279 of the 1,054 dangerous street light poles

1,054 street light poles are corroded and ‘extremely dangerous’, but red tape stops them from being replaced.As ifandweren’t enough, Mumbaikars now need to be wary of a new threat – weak street light poles. Inspections in the past six months have revealed that 1,054 poles are heavily corroded and need immediate replacement., which maintains the street poles, has classified these as ‘extremely dangerous’. However, their replacement is stuck in red tape.The 33,000 street light poles in the city have a shelf life of 15 years and undergo maintenance every three years, during which the pole is repainted and the ‘cement apron’ at the bottom is checked for corrosion.As a stop-gap measure, BEST officials have chosen darkness over danger and removed 279 of the dangerous poles from the streets, leaving these areas in darkness. A BEST official explained, A senior official from BEST reasoned, “We thought it best to deal with dark patches rather than run the risk of these poles falling on.”The replacement for these dangerous poles will have to wait due to red tape. The proposal to procure 3,000 street poles was rejected by the BEST committee in May this year. Members cited delays in delivery by the company with which the order was placed as the reason for the rejection.Chairman of BEST Committee, Ashish Chemburkar, said, “We have rejected the proposal as the company has been very laidback in their delivery. The previous orders have been delayed for three to four months. The fact that this proposal was rejected will be a lesson to the company that the delivery should be made in time.”However, there are dissenting voices in the BEST administration wo believe that the quality of poles is more important than the punctuality. “The company has already been slapped with a penalty for the late delivery, according to the rule,” said a senior official.After the committee members refused to pass the proposal, BEST administration placed an order for 600 poles under the power allocated to the general manager of BEST. “Purchase of commodities worth upto Rs 50 lakh can be made by the general manager directly without getting approval from the committee. We have placed an order of 600 street poles under that rule,” explained an official.However, even these poles are stuck with the supplier due to the ongoing truckers’ strike. “We are expecting the delivery to come in the next 15 days after which these poles will be put up on the streets,” added the official.General Manager of BEST, Surendra Bagde confirmed, “We will get delivery of 600 poles in the next few days and we will also be putting a fresh proposal before the BEST committee for the rest of the poles.”