City of Harare embarks on massive smart street lighting project

Harare City Council (HCC) has embarked on a massive smart street lighting project which is aimed at revamping the city’s lighting infrastructure.

The pilot project is going to cover 35km of the city’s major road network is being carried out in partner ship with Zesa and Rwanda Energy Group.

HCC says the project will see 1202 street lights be installed, throughout the major road network in the city. “Revamping will include removal of the old existing cables and refurbishment of the old street lighting poles.

“The poles we are putting on are not new, they have always been there but we have refurbished & repainted them,” said the city’s Acting Head of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Eng Calvin Chigariro.

“As part of the project we are going to install a back office with a management system that monitors performance of street lights.

“We will be able to control the switching on, the lighting levels & the deeming of the lights from our back office.”

He went on to say the system enables the monitoring of performance & power consumption adding that if there are faults or anything untoward of like vandalism, he added that the system picks it up simultaneously as it happens in real time from the back office.

“The smartec solution also allows us to put in security cameras so that we are able to view what happens in the roads from the same system once we have commissioned it.

“The project covers Airport Road, Seke Road, Julius Nyerere, the stretch of Samora between Rekai Tangwena and Enterprise, Seventh Street and Chancellor Avenue up to Churchill.”

“The pilot project will also cover Rekai Tangwena, Bishop Gaul and Gangues Road.”

Meanwhile, Eng Chigariro the project’s aim is to ensure that once completed it will make the neighbourhood safer, roads better trafficable and extending people to stay out late, restaurants to stay out late there by providing opportunities of businesses to operate for longer period.

Zwnews