The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) proudly oversees an extensive network of streetlights, but for the city’s motorists, darkness and danger are increasingly becoming the norm on countless stretches of road after sunset. The promised efficiency of the city’s vast LED street light project is often overshadowed by the pathetic state of maintenance, transforming a simple nighttime commute into a harrowing ordeal.
The Dangerous Darkness
Reports and resident complaints paint a grim picture across all parts of the city—from upscale areas like Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills to busy main roads and inner colony streets in Kukatpally, Nampally, and beyond.
* Widespread Malfunction: Large numbers of streetlights, sometimes up to 10% of the total 5.5 lakh lights, are frequently reported as non-functional, creating pitch-dark stretches. For two-wheeler riders and pedestrians, these unlit areas pose a severe risk of accidents and elevate concerns about personal safety and crime.
* The ‘On-and-Off’ Problem: Beyond complete outages, many lights are either excessively dim, flicker erratically, or, ironically, remain illuminated during the day due to faulty timers—a clear sign of poor maintenance and wasted energy.
* Pothole Hazard: With the city’s monsoon-worn roads and unlit streets, drivers are forced to navigate dangerously: potholes become invisible traps, drastically increasing the risk of vehicle damage and serious accidents.
A Cascade of Civic Failure
The root cause of this city-wide blackout lies squarely in the maintenance and bureaucratic failures of the civic body.
* Contractual Limbo: The core issue has been the lapse of the maintenance contract with the previous service provider, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). With no new agency immediately appointed, the GHMC is struggling to handle the extensive repair work directly, leading to a massive backlog of complaints.
* The Complaint Black Hole: While the GHMC receives an overwhelming number of complaints annually, the ground reality is a substantial delay in resolution. Residents often complain that even after lodging grievances through official apps or helplines, streets can remain dark for weeks or even months.
* Funding and Logistics: Delayed payments to contractors and a reported lack of spare parts in local GHMC stores further compound the problem, crippling the ability of repair teams to respond promptly.
The High-Beam Hazard: A Symptom of the Problem
The direct consequence of poor street illumination is a secondary, but equally dangerous, problem: the rampant misuse of high-beam headlights by motorists.
Faced with a dark road, drivers instinctively switch to high beams to improve their own visibility.
However, this creates a temporary blinding effect for oncoming traffic, drastically reducing reaction time and depth perception. This choice—between navigating a dark road and unintentionally blinding others—highlights the severity of the infrastructure failure.
Experts and accident data increasingly point to this “high-beam havoc” as a major contributing factor to nighttime road accidents.
The Urgent Call for Light
Hyderabad, a global IT hub and a major metropolitan city, deserves a safe and well-lit infrastructure. The time for stop-gap measures is over.
The GHMC must prioritize the finalization of a long-term, accountable maintenance contract with a clear framework, geo-tagging, and a mandate for quick response times. Until the civic body addresses the underlying maintenance crisis, the city’s roads will continue to be a dangerous, unlit terrain where every night drive is a game of chance.
