THE Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company has made it clear that it is not responsible for street lights along major corridors as the fixtures remain, for now, the responsibility of the National Works Agency (NWA).

In a release this week, the JPS said there is a common perception that lights along major corridors — which total 1,815 — belong to the company, but that it is just now in negotiations with the NWA to take control of these street lights.“This, however, has not yet been finalised and they, therefore, continue to be the responsibility of the NWA,” the JPS pointed out. The JPS says it will be replacing and rehabilitating missing or defective lamps in a number of areas, including the Elegant Corridor in Montego Bay, St James, and the Molynes Road intersection with Washington Boulevard; Papine to Liguanea; Trafalgar Road; Harbour View and others eastern environs; Dunrobin to Molynes Intersection; Liguanea to Lady Musgrave; and Michael Manley Boulevard in the Corporate Area.

The light and power company also reported that it has hit the 105,000 mark to replace high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights with light emitting diode (LED) street lights. The exercise, which started in 2017 with an initial two-year timeline, was rolled out in cities, followed by major towns, main thoroughfares and smaller communities.

JPS senior vice-president for energy delivery, Blaine Jarrett, said the project is beneficial to businesses, pedestrians, security, and night life. “We are certainly happy to be making a vital contribution to improving the quality of lives of our fellow Jamaicans,” he said, pointing out that the completion of this project will allow the Government to expand its street light programme into other communities.

The company said there are other street lights that are yet to be converted, which it is proposing to complete by the end of 2023. These additional lights were not a part of the initial HPS to LED conversion project.

In his presentation in the just-concluded 2022/23 sectoral debate, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie reported that Government had cleared its $2.9-billion street light debt for 2020/21.

He said some street lights were still not working, and that the Government remained in talks with the JPS to resolve the issue. At the time, the JPS told the Observer that the vast majority of street lights were working.