Motorists using the Sion-Panvel highway will get a well-illuminated highway now Public Works Department (PWD has transferred the maintenance of electrical lights between Vashi toll plaza to Konkan Bhawan in Belapur to Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation. So far, the maintenance work was being carried out by PWD.
Defunct street lights along the Sion-Panvel highway in the Navi Mumbai area were a common problem and motorists often complained to the local body. Despite the fact that the maintenance works were being carried out by PWD and NMMC had to face the public wrath.
Since Navi Mumbai ranked as the cleanest city among the big cities with a population of 10 to 40 lakh in the Cleanliness Survey 2021, well-illuminated street lights were also part of the survey. However, the Sion-Panvel highway crosses through NMMC jurisdiction, and the defunct street lights of the highway might have had a remark in the survey.
NMMC has been making a constant demand to transfer maintenance work of street lights works of the stretch falling under its jurisdiction to the corporation.
In this regard, a joint meeting of the concerned officers of NMMC and PWD was held on September 15, 2021, and a final decision has been taken now. “As per the decision, all the street lights, transformers, electrical systems and electricity meters on Sion-Panvel highway from Vashi toll Plaza to Konkan Bhavan in Belapur are being handed over to NMMC by the Electricity Department of PWD,” said the municipal commissioner Abhijeet Bangar.
Bangar added that citizens unaware of who maintains the street lights of the stretch passing through NMMC jurisdiction often blamed the civic body for defunct lights. And, that is why the civic body insisted on handover the maintenance works.
In addition, the maintenance of four pedestrian underpasses on Sion-Panvel Highway, two underpasses at Nerul, and two at SBI Colony have been transferred to NMMC for maintenance and repair.
