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CITY HALL is keeping an eye on the public lighting along roads in Inanam, Likas and Kolombong, to ensure that public are not unduly inconvenienced by the poor illumination in these parts of its rating-area.

A spokesman for the agency’s Engineering Department said its electrical contractor had been asked to make regular checks of the streetlights on Lorong Industri Warisan 1 and Lorong Industri Warisan 2, as well as those on the divider in the middle of Jalan Tuaran.

He said mischief-makers were to blame for the lack of illumination along the first two roads.

“These errant parties apparently made away with a span of cable, which left more than 10 lights out of order,” he said.

He said suspected that the vandals might have been targeting the metal in the overhead lines.

“The thieves may have had ambitions of hawking the copper as used-metal. However, the cable which they stole has little resale-value as it is made of aluminium.”

He said a police report had been made about the theft.

On top of the putting a new 300metre-length of cable in place, the spokesman said the contractor’s workers also repaired some of the affected lights in this part of Inanam. 

“A pair of bulbs and lanterns with LEDs (Light emitting diodes) were found to have been damaged. They were replaced on the spot.

“The technicians also dealt with any loose connections involving the lights.”

The spokesman said the contractor conducted a day-time test to check if these amenities were coming on as they should.

“He, later, returned at night to gauge if Lorong Industri Warisan 1 and Lorong Industri Warisan 2 were adequately illuminated.”

The individual monitored the “trouble spots” for several days afterwards, according to him.

He said none of the lights broke down during either of these periods. 

“We have called on the individual to be more mindful of any funny business involving these amenities in future.

“Nevertheless, this may prove exceedingly difficult to do. Given the extensiveness of our rating area, it would be impossible for him and his workers to be everywhere at once.”

To this end, he hoped the public would inform City Hall directly if they witnessed the streetlights being vandalised.

He said this would allow the agency to deal with these problems accordingly. 

Regarding Jalan Tuaran, he said technical faults had caused the divider lights in two separate sections to be out of order.

The contractor’s team repaired part of the underground cable which serviced the lights on a 468 metre section of the main road, between Taman Hon Kong and the traffic light intersection near Plaza Juta in Likas, according to him. 

“They also replaced an 8-metre pole on the median here.”

The spokesman said the outage on Jalan Tuaran – between the junctions from the Jalan Kolombong and Jalan Udan – stemmed from several damaged fixtures. 

A distance of some 457metres separates the two junctions

“Two ‘lanterns’ and a ‘contactor’ were found to be defective,” the spokesman said. 

“The contractor’s workers had new components installed.”

The new bulbs had a strength of 250 watts, while the “contactor” could conduct up to 60 amps of power, according to him.

He explained that a “contactor” was a type of switch for repeatedly opening and closing an electric circuit.

When asked how often maintenance was carried out on those streetlights under City Hall’s jurisdiction, the spokesman said there was no fixed-schedule for this work.

“These amenities are attended to as and when it becomes necessary to do so.”