Delhi Metro to replace traditional lighting system with LED lights
Delhi Metro is working on replacing the existing conventional lighting system with LED lights at 155 locations spread across its stations, depots and parking lots. According to officials’ statement on Sunday, the aim is to save energy and provide a better experience. He said this is being done as part of a larger campaign launched earlier this year, and in recent months nearly a lakh LED lights have been replaced by the old ones.
“In order to save energy and provide better lighting experience, Delhi Metro has replaced the conventional existing lights (incandescent bulbs, fluorescent lamps, CFL lamps etc.) with LED lights at 155 locations covering metro stations, depots, parking lots. etc. which were created or opened to the public under Ph-I (2005) and Ph-II (2010) of DMRC,” the DMRC said in a statement.
A senior official said that DMRC has covered 75 per cent of the campaign in recent months by replacing the traditional lights with nearly one lakh LED lights at these locations.
He said that the remaining 25 per cent of the campaign would be completed by the end of October this year, in which about 35,000 LED lights would be installed in the remaining part of these locations.
The operational life of conventional lights installed in Ph-I and Ph-II was approximately 10 years.
DMRC decided to replace these lights, which are now well beyond their effective lifespan, with these new age LED lights which are cost effective as well as energy-efficient.
The LED based lighting system will help DMRC to save almost half the energy expenditure as compared to the existing lighting system.
Consequently, the entire cost of installing these lights will be recovered by DMRC in about two years’ time, the statement said.
The lifespan of an LED system is longer than conventional existing lights with much lower maintenance costs. On average, an LED system lasts for 50,000 operating hours or more, it said.
An LED source has a lifespan of 40 times longer than an incandescent bulb. Apart from this, LED lights have an energy efficiency component which makes them consume very less amount of electricity, officials said.
It said that it was a daunting task for the DMRC maintenance teams to carry out this operation at the already operational stations.
Officials said that since there is regular movement of people, the work had to be done during night time due to security reasons, which increased the time of installation.
“Even during the night, work could only be done for two hours a day because the time window available from the end of the last passenger service and the start of the first passenger service is very limited, and other critical operational preparation and routine maintenance activities are limited to this.” are done in the period itself,” the DMRC said.
It added that the DMRC had to arrange for special scaffolding and cranes to cover the vacant space two or three times the normal height of a building, which is again a very difficult and time-consuming exercise.
Officials said DMRC has already implemented LED-based lighting at its Phase-III stations and a similar system will be adopted for the upcoming Phase-IV stations.
(with inputs from PTI)
Read also | Delhi Metro Pink Line Timings Revised
In Video: Delhi Metro resumes operations at full capacity following COVID-induced restrictions
.