In a bid to save energy, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to keep 50 percent of the lights along roads turned off.
“Following the government’s directive, the CDA has decided to keep 50% of road lights closed,” the authority said in an official statement. It stated that this was done to save energy but that all streetlights in residential areas would remain operational to avoid inconvenience to citizens.
The CDA officials said that the city has over 40,000 street and road lights. Until recently, the CDA had been paying a large sum to Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) because no metres were installed. However, the CDA was able to instal 585 metres in the city last year and has plans to instal an additional 40 metres this year. The Engineering Wing is pursuing the case aggressively.
“We have already paid a fee to Iesco, and soon, they will install our remaining meters as well,” an engineer said. In addition, he added that the civic agency pays Iesco a monthly bill of over Rs 60 million, which is lower than the lump sum amount that the CDA used to pay before the metering system.
Moreover, the CDA is installing a solar system for all of its buildings, waterworks, and tubewells through the Alternative Energy Development Board.
It is worth noting that the federal government recently decided to close marketplaces by 8:30 pm as part of its Energy Conservation Plan, which required all wedding halls to close at 10 pm and markets and malls to close at 8:30 pm. The government expects to save Rs 62 billion by limiting the working hours of wedding halls, restaurants, and markets. Aside from that, the government decided to levy an additional duty on inefficient electric fans in order to save Rs 15 billion.
Despite the fact that the decision was strongly opposed by the last provincial governments of the Pakistan Tehreek-i–Insaf (PTI) in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, primarily on political grounds, the federal government failed to implement the decision in the federal capital, where traders’ associations staged a number of protests and refused to obey the orders.