Shillong towards ‘smart city’ without proper street lights

SHILLONG: Despite being selected as Smart City, Shillong lacks proper and illuminated street lighting system.
The Pine City of Shillong, which is widely projected as one of the most loved hill stations, embraces darkness after sunset every day, thanks to non-functional street lights all across the city, much to the consternation of local residents and tourists.
Shillong has recently become the 100th city to be selected under the Smart City Mission.
Though it is seen that many street lights in the city have been repaired, a large portion of Shillong still remains under darkness either due to non functional street lights or no street lights at all.
The situation has reached such an extent that a high-mast light which was installed at the MES (Military Engineer Services) point last year, is not working for the last 2-3 months and no one has bothered to repair it.
Some people who visit Shillong also expressed surprise over the fact that the concept of high mast lights is yet to come up in the Scotland of the East.
Only a few places like Khyndailad, Motphran, Golf link, Rhino point and 101 Area have the high-mast lightings.
According to the city residents, though there are plenty of important junctions in the city like the IGP point which is just next to the Secretariat, DC office junction, Barik junction and even the junction near the Raj Bhavan, the street lighting in these junctions is far from satisfactory and there are no high-mast lights in such important locations of the town.
Many say that if the lighting in the city is good, it would also discourage miscreants from committing any crime but till date, the street lighting in Shillong continues to be in the same old condition what it was a decade back.