LAHORE, Nov 14: The Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) is likely to replace the outdated halogen lights installed at five historical sites in the city with the latest Light Emitting Diode (LED).

The decision to install new lights will also help save electricity, officials told Dawn on Thursday.

They said the LEDs worth over Rs50 million will be installed at Hazoori Bagh, Badshahi Mosque, Minar-i-Pakistan, Lahore Fort and Wazir Khan Mosque.

Though the WCLA installed some LEDs at Hazoori Bagh as a sample a couple of days ago, the work to illuminate these historical places with LED technology would start by next month or so, they said.

“Since we are in the process of taking administrative control of these sites and the Shahi Hamam (royal bath) from the departments concerned in the light of the prime minister’s direction to the Punjab government, we have prepared feasibility and estimates of the (LED) project worth over Rs50 million. The project includes purchase and installation of 5,600 LEDs and generators,” a senior WCLA official told this reporter.

He said the project’s feasibility was prepared after the WCLA got conducted a detailed survey of the sites including the currently installed halogen lights, comparison of energy use, electricity bills, maintenance cost and life of the LEDs and halogen lights.

He said the halogen lights had been installed at these sites in 2001 but the departments concerned mostly kept them switched off keeping in view the energy crisis. These lights were also costing the government heavily in terms of maintenance cost and monthly bills, he said, adding a number of lights had also gone out of order.Quoting the survey results, the official said by switching over to LEDs the government would save about 80 per cent of energy, besides 70 per cent of (Rs500,000 to Rs600,000) the monthly electricity bills.

“The life of an LED is 50,000 hours whereas it comes with a two-year warranty. The LEDs are also much more durable than the halogen lights and give more light too,” he added.

Talking about other on-going WCLA activities, the official said the Aga Khan Trust had started work on project aimed at restoration of the Shahi Hamam to its original form. The restoration project is being funded by Norwegian government. The official said the project executing agency (the Aga Khan Trust) had succeeded in tracing the tubs of the Shahi Hamam.

He said the process to takeover the historical sites including the Shahi Hamam from the archeology and tourism departments and the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) was underway and soon the WCLA would take their administrative and functional control.