KARACHI, Jan 9: The city government and other civic agencies, such as the Defence Housing Authority, the Karachi Cantonment Board and the Karachi Port Trust, have failed to ensure that the streetlights in Karachi remain in running order at all times.

Sources told Dawn on Friday that the city government had no centralized policy pertaining to the streetlights in Karachi. They said the city government was responsible for the streetlights on 27 major roads only, adding that the remaining streetlights were supposed to be run by union councils.

"Every union council has a different budget for the maintenance and running of streetlights. The union councils are also responsible for making available the hardware needed to keep the streetlights in running order," they said.

A spokesman for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation told Dawn that the power utility supplied electricity to the streetlights at all times. "In return the KESC is supposed to get commercial charges from the city government. However, the city government fails to make the payments in time," he explained.

He made clear that the KESC was not at all responsible for keeping the streetlights in running order.

KESC officials said: "The power utility is responsible for the switching and maintenance of the following types of the streetlights: those installed with low-tension distribution mains of the power utility, those installed at poles erected by civic agencies, those installed privately by different non-governmental organizations and social committees. It also looks after all those types of neon signs and advertising boards associated with streetlight mains.

"If a bulb goes off or a wire is burnt out, the city government and any other civic agency will have to step in. The KESC only ensures that all streetlights remain in running order."

According to a KESC plan, a supervisor streetlight of the area is responsible for the timely switching of all the streetlights in his area of jurisdiction. "He is also responsible for reporting and getting rectified a fault in the circuit through the resources of his composite complaint centre.

An electrical supervisor or sub-engineer who is on duty on evening and night shifts at the composite complaint centre is responsible for confirmation of switching of the streetlights in the area. He is also responsible for getting the faults removed from the streetlight circuits which are pointed out by the supervisor streetlight. The zonal manager is responsible for the efficient implementation of the policy."

The KESC plan spells out that no manual switches at normal reachable height will be allowed in any case. "However, if a breaker is removed for maintenance or repair purpose by the KESC a temporary manual arrangement may be done, but it should not be at normal reachable height. In such a case, urgent replacing of the temporary manual switch must be ensured within one week."

It adds that any manual switch installed in the area will be switched on and off by a composite complaint centre under the instructions of the supervisor streetlight of the area.