Chandigarh, Mar 26 (PTI) Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday announced the launch of "Mukh Mantri Street Light Yojana" under which 2.50 lakh street lights will be installed across the state in next year.

While presenting the state budget for 2025-26 in the assembly here, Cheema allocated Rs 115 crore for the scheme.

"The dream of 'Badalda Punjab' cannot be fulfilled if our towns and villages remain steeped in darkness. It is indeed unfortunate that even 78 years after independence, many of our villages don't have proper street lights installed," said Cheema.

"That is why our government has decided to launch the "Mukh Mantri Street Light Yojana" through which we will install 2.5 lakh street lights in the next year throughout Punjab," he said.

Cheema said an innovative model will be used for installing street lights.

"Instead of installing poles which are expensive, we will install these street lights outside people's homes and draw electricity connections from their domestic connection. An equivalent number of consumed units will be deducted from the electricity bills of these households, and at the same time they will feel safe with a street light outside their homes," he said.

The minister also said that to enhance power transmission and distribution infrastructure, in the current year, the state has commissioned 16 new 66 kV substations, augmented 106 power transformers, and laid 1,500 km of new transmission lines.

The commissioning of two 400 kV substations in Rupnagar and Gurdaspur respectively, along with multiple capacity upgrades at key transmission nodes, has significantly strengthened Punjab's power reliability.

The finance minister proposed a budget outlay of Rs 7,614 crore for providing 300 units of free power per month to domestic consumers as part of the ongoing scheme of the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) government. PTI CHS HVA

Street light installation scheme uses household connections with bill-unit adjustments under a state-funded electrification programme. Mukh Mantri Street Light Yojana will install 250,000 street lights using an innovative model that connects lights to domestic electricity connections; consumed units will be offset by deducting equivalent units from household electricity bills, funded through a specific budget allocation to expand public lighting without extensive new pole infrastructure.