Pakistan Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to first launch a LED street lights pilot project in the city to assess whether the new expensive technology will help achieve the objectives.

According to an official, when the directives were given to the CDA, some official are concerned about the huge cost of the project. The estimated cost of the project was over Rs 6 billion and it would cause a huge lose to the national exchequer, in case of a failure. Some high-ups of CDA also showed concern about the maintenance of LED light because the similar problem in other projects. “Currently, the CDA electrical maintenance wing has no technical staff to for the purpose.”

He said the CDA was paying an amount of around Rs 120 million per month on electricity bills and unable to disburse the overdue amount to the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO). “The IESCO has several time disconnected power supply of the CDA due to huge overdue bill,” he said.

The official said the cost for running and maintaining the streetlights had increased by 30 to 40 per cent in the last couple of years, and these figures did not include the salary of the 400 employees, who were part of the electrical maintenance wing. The non-development expenditure crossed Rs 6 billion while the authority earned only Rs2 billion through taxes, due to which the CDA is coping with severe financial crises.

However, some of the influential people were interested to get the project as technology was readily available from China.

Aside from LED replacement, the CDA plan also intends to install the solar geezers in the government accommodations, Parliament House, President House and other major buildings of the city.