The cabinet committee on economic affairs today approved a project for lighting various roads in the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) areas under Indian Line of Credit-3.

The CCC is implementing the project titled 'Modernisation of City Street Light System under Chattogram City Corporation'.

The committee approved the proposal to purchase the tender packages at a cost of Tk 258.6 crore.

Mumbai-based firm Shapoorji Pallonji & Company Private Limited (SPCPL) is the recommended bidder.

Project Direct of CCC Superintendent Engineer Jhulan Kumar Das could not be reached over cell phone for his comment despite repeated attempts.

The project was approved at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on July 9 in 2019 but it has not seen any progress yet.

The project with a one-year tenure has already been revised for several times.

Abdul Bari, former executive engineer (electrical) of CCC, previously informed The Daily Star that after the implementation of the project, the electricity bill of CCC will be reduced by half and a smart management system would be introduced instead of the manual process.

He said around 500 switches for lamp control will be replaced by only four central server stations. The LED lamps will be controlled by timers and magnetic control systems.

According to CCC sources, there are lights on a total of 1,043 kilometres of roads in the city.

Among them, sodium lamps cover up a total of 890 kilometres of roads and LED lamps cover up 153 kilometres.

Meanwhile, if the project is implemented, 467 kilometres covered with sodium lamps will be replaced by LED lamps.

According to CCC officials, there are about 51,573 sodium lamps in the city streets. These lamps are switched on and off from 1,534 switching points in different mosques, temples and social organisation offices.

A total of 1,534 imams, muazzins and priests are engaged in this work at each point.

The CCC has been paying an honorarium of Tk 2,500 to each of them annually -- Tk 38.35 lakh in total.

The cabinet committee today also approved a proposal to import of 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea worth Tk 95.7 crore from the UAE's Fertiglobe Distribution Ltd.

Another proposal of the commerce ministry for purchasing 1.1 crore litres of soybean oil from Super Oil Refinery Limited of TK Group was also approved.

The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will make the purchase.