BEST administration also wants to know, who will maintain the Marine Drive Queens Necklace LED lights

The fixing of white LED lights along the Queens Necklace at Marine Drive sparked a tussle which has knocked on the doors of the Hon'ble High Court, Mumbai, and the process to change them back to yellow has commenced too. But the BEST administration is still in dark about who is supposed to maintain the lamps as the details are still not clear with them. They have written to the MCGM administration seeking clarity on the issue, but have hit a stonewall can be seen from the fact that MCGM authorities are still to respond to the letter. This communication gap has come to light from the details provided by the BEST administration to RTI activist Anil Galgali. RTI activist Anil Galgali had sought information from the BEST administration regarding the details of the LED lights being installed at Marine Drive, popularly known as the Queens Necklace. Galgali also sought the details of all correspondence regarding the project. In response to the query, The Divisional Engineer (Street Light) informed Galgali that, a total of 644 candecent lamps, manufactured by Canara, Bajaj, Crompton and Fixolite, costing Rs 5000 each were replaced with LED lamps, whose manufacturers are not known to the BEST. The documents provided to Galgali regarding the correspondence between the BEST administration and the Municipal administration shockingly exposes the communication gap between them. Dr Jagdish Patil, General Manager of BEST has failed evoke a response from the Municipal Commissioner and the Nodal officer for the project on his letter raising issues and seeking clarity regarding the project. Dr Patil, GM, BEST in a 2 paged letter dated 05/05/2015, addressed to Shri Ajoy Mehta, Municipal Commissioner sought to know, who is supposed to maintain the LED lights installed at the Marine Drive. He also expressed his anguish about lack of information regarding the Mumbai LED lighting project's process and implementation system. Though M/s EESL which has undertaken to ensure power savings for 7 years, the maintenance of cables, poles, and brackets still fall under the purview of the BEST. This could lead to misunderstandings, confusions in future and hence has expressed that a single system for maintenance needs to be established for ensuring smooth and faster redresal of complaints and responses to it, which needed to be sorted out, mentioned Dr Patil in the foot note. Dr Jagdish Patil has also sent a letter addressed to the Nodal officer for the project, Mr SVR Srinivas, Addl Municipal Commissioner dt 15/06/2015 detailing the various problems arisen, and seeking details about future plans and a complete road map for installation of the LED lamps, but the BEST administration is still waiting for both the officers of the MCGM to respond, can be understood from the details available. Anil Galgali has expressed that, M/s EESL has just taken intrest in installing the LED lamps and hence sought to know, who is responsible for maintenance and citizens complaints and grievances? He has further stated that the State government and the MCGM needs to collectively arrive at a solution for this.