Faulty street lights will be repaired from next year as a part of a three-year programme carried out by the Fiji Roads Authority.

One of the most common complaints from ratepayers over many years has been the poor state of street lights in their neighbourhoods.

Maintenance Works manager, Dale Nicholls says FRA will begin an extensive street light maintenance programme next year.

“70 percent of the lights that we need for replacement and only about 30 percent of the lights are suitable to be renewed. So our budgets were always skewered a wrong way because renewals far more expensive than just put in a new light bulb into a street light.”

Street lights were previously maintained by the city and town councils.

Now they come under the FRA and about 6000 street lights will need to be replaced.

“The issues that we’ve faced with leading up to now which is obviously quite a lot of criticism around, you know the lack of been able to get on top of the lights that are not working out there and as i’ve said the reason behind this the balance of the ones that need replacing far out numbers, the ones we can just repair.”

The authority has received 653-million dollars in the 2015 budget and some of the funds will be used in the streetlight maintenance programme.

The FRA will next week disclose the rest of its street light and road maintenance programmes for the New Year.