Mysore City Corporation is on a spree replacing tube lights on streets with sodium vapour lamps, not just on street corners, but also away from street corners (The photo in the Attachment shows two sodium lamps within 50 feet of each other on a short quiet street in Yadavagiri). It has become a status symbol to have a sodium vapour lamp in front of one's house and so anyone with any influence at all moves heaven and earth to get a sodium vapour lamp next to his house.
According to Down To Earth magazine dated 1-3-2009, experts are of the view that sodium vapour lamps may be more suited for highways, but for residential roads, T5 and T8 fluorescent lamps are better for efficiency and economy. Following this advice, Indore Municipal Corporation recently changed about half the city's street lights from sodium vapour to fluorescent lights and as a consequence is saving Rs. 1 crore in electricity charges.
Has MCC undertaken any study on the relative merits of sodium vapour lamps and fluorescent lamps? If not, why is it changing fluorescent lamps with sodium lamps incurring enormous installation costs and higher operating costs? Does it not know that other cities are going the opposite way and saving money?