Surat: A group of volunteers in Surat has flagged alleged electricity wastage after finding that streetlights at several locations across the city remained switched on for up to two hours beyond the scheduled time, raising questions over the Surat Municipal Corporation’s (SMC) power conservation practices despite its push for renewable energy.The group claimed that streetlights on major roads continued to remain on well after the scheduled switch-off time in the morning, while in the evening the lights were turned on nearly an hour earlier than the designated time at several locations.According to the volunteers, they observed the issue while travelling across different parts of the city and later began systematically monitoring the lights. They created a social media page to collect updates from residents, documented instances by clicking photographs, and filed complaints through SMC’s official grievance portal.“So far, we have filed more than 700 complaints. Sometimes the problem repeats at the same location, and sometimes at different places. This sends a wrong message to society,” said Divyesh Kumawat, a volunteer associated with the group.Group members said they revisited the same locations for two to three consecutive days at the same time to verify the issue. Whenever the lights were found switched on beyond the scheduled hours, they lodged complaints with the civic body.Another volunteer, Jignesh Angiwala, said that despite repeated complaints and several RTI applications, the issue continues. “It is unfortunate that public money is being wasted every year due to electricity wastage instead of being spent on better public works,” he said.SMC officials, however, maintained that the problem was not widespread. They said that in some areas the lights were kept on during daytime due to repair or testing work. Officials also acknowledged that there could be lapses due to faults in the machinery controlling the lights.According to SMC data, the city has around 1.73 lakh streetlights, of which nearly 70% are operated through electronic timers, while the remaining 30% use non-electronic timers. The switching on and off of lights is managed at the zonal level, while infrastructure development is overseen by the electrical department. Officials said the timer settings are adjusted on a month-wise basis, with variations of a few minutes depending on daylight changes. It is also suspected that in some locations miscreants may be damaging the light-operating systems.“Our teams regularly monitor the streetlights and take corrective action whenever timing issues are noticed. Given the wide network, issues do arise occasionally, but we are working to further improve the infrastructure,” an SMC official said.
