The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), international NGO the Climate Group and HSBC reported that they would start India’s largest LED Street-lighting pilot program in Kolkata, which installed over 270 lights on several of the city’s arterial roads.

KMC together with the Government of India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL), the Climate Group and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) would take charge of the project. For the project cost, BEE and KMC would pay the bill.

The project was first announced back in April 2010, and the LED installation began in October 2010 with a first tranche of 20 Philips Lumec RoadStar LED streetlights. A 12-month monitoring phase of project would begin in December to measure product performance, including illuminance, uniformity, color temperature, and energy savings.

Except that, other Indian cities and internationally has started looking to trial LED technology, such as Thane in Maharashtra, which planed to welcome the next round of pilot tests.

KMC noted Kolkata had 180,000 street lights and the potential to develop this clean technology was considerable. The company expected to better understand the wide-ranging benefits of this clean technology including energy and carbon savings, working alongside The Climate Group and its members.