Pottery Road Left in the Dark for Two Years Due to Missing Street Lights

Pottery Road in Bengaluru has remained poorly lit for more than two years, leaving residents, business owners, and motorists to navigate pitch-dark stretches after sunset. The prolonged lack of illumination along the major roadway has raised urgent safety concerns, with locals pointing out that civic authorities have failed to resolve the issue.

The street-light fittings along Pottery Road near East Railway Station and the railway underpass at the intersection of Tannery Road, Pottery Road, and Borebank Road were dismantled two years ago. The removal was carried out to facilitate track-widening work by South Western Railway between Cantonment Station and Byappanahalli Railway Station. Although the railway project has concluded, the poles and fixtures have not been reinstalled.

Residents and motorists attributed the delay to a lack of coordination between South Western Railway and the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Street Light Division. According to residents, the street-light contractor indicated that the operations and maintenance divisions need to reinstall a new pole and restore the underlying cable connections before the lights can operate again.

The stretch also suffers from an outdated operating method. While most municipal street lights rely on centralised control systems, certain lights on Pottery Road depend on manual connections. Two bare electrical wires must be manually hooked together each evening to switch the lights on and unhooked every morning to turn them off. Residents noted that when the manual hook is not operated, the entire stretch remains completely unlit.

The darkness has compromised commuter safety in the locality. A resident noted that a passenger who arrived on an early-morning train was recently robbed along the road, following the introduction of train stops at East Railway Station over the past two months.

Demanding immediate action, residents have urged officials to install automatic timers and set up a temporary overhead power connection to restore lighting until permanent poles and cables are reinstalled.