ENGINEERING • STREET LIGHTING & MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Street lighting from field survey to implementation planning.

Across multiple municipalities, my work covered GPS-based field surveys, road-width and pole assessment, luminaire calculations, smart-control concepts, BOQ preparation, technical reporting and municipal coordination. The projects below are grouped by the engineering problem each one presented rather than repeating the same job description.

ROAD LIGHTING STUDIES

Five municipalities, five different planning problems.

Sundar Haraicha

95.29 km • 45 corridors

Municipality-wide feasibility and route selection 02

Kirtipur

≈6 km focused corridor

Drone-assisted survey and geometry-based design 03

Dhangadhi

145.32 km • 58 routes

City-scale survey and 81 km prioritization 04

Bharatpur

94.89 km • 32 corridors

Infrastructure reuse and centralized monitoring 05

Budhanilkantha

≈70–80 km network

Urban, steep, river-side and forest-road conditions

MY RECURRING ROLE ACROSS THESE STUDIES

Field → calculation → design → estimate → report → municipality

I participated directly in field surveying and GPS/road measurements, assessed existing poles and feeder conditions, organized survey data, worked on pole spacing and luminaire selection, contributed to estimates and BOQs, prepared substantial portions of technical reports and presentations, and communicated with municipal officials.

ROAD LIGHTING • CASE 01

Sundar Haraicha Municipality

Morang, Nepal • 2021

NETWORK95.29 km ROUTES45 corridors FIELD≈ 5 days

Before a city can be lit intelligently, somebody has to understand it one road at a time.

Google Earth route and waypoint survey for Sundar Haraicha Municipality — Actual survey-network evidence used during the Sundar Haraicha feasibility study.

ROAD CORRIDORS45

NETWORK LENGTH95.29 km

POLE LOCATIONS2,209

ROAD WIDTHS≈5–12 m

FIELD INVOLVEMENT≈5 days

THE ENGINEERING QUESTION

Which roads actually made sense to illuminate?

The municipality supplied a road list, but individual routes crossed ward boundaries. A route-based survey became more practical than treating each ward as an isolated area.

I travelled through the proposed corridors, collected GPS points, measured road widths, assessed existing electricity poles and observed traffic, settlements and site constraints. After the survey, I worked on road-list spreadsheets, pole quantities, 60 W / 90 W / 120 W lighting requirements, estimates and the final feasibility report.

FEASIBILITY

Not every road was carried forward

Knowing where not to build was part of the work.

Some corridors were screened out because of narrow road width, irregular pole distribution, possible visibility obstruction or difficulty installing additional poles. The study was not about maximizing the number of lights; it was about identifying where municipal investment made practical engineering sense.

ROAD LIST

→

FIELD SURVEY

→

GPS + WIDTH + POLES

→

LIGHTING CALCULATION

→

FEASIBILITY

→

FINAL REPORT

ROAD LIGHTING • CASE 02

Kirtipur Municipality

Kathmandu, Nepal • 2020

CORRIDORTU Gate → Pushpalal Park LENGTH≈ 6 km CONTEXTCOVID-period project

A six-kilometre road does not need one lighting solution repeated six kilometres.

ROAD CLASSES8 / 10 / 13 m

POLE HEIGHT9 m

DESIGN LEVEL5 lux

SURVEYField + drone

OUTPUTBOQ + report + presentation

DESIGN BY GEOMETRY

The road changed, so the lighting design changed with it.

The TU Gate to Pushpalal Park corridor was divided into road-width categories rather than treated as one uniform street.

I participated in the field and drone-survey process, helped identify the 8 m, 10 m and 13 m sections, and worked on lux calculations, pole spacing, luminaire requirements and the BOQ. Wider sections required different spacing and arm arrangements than narrower sections, connecting physical road geometry directly to lighting design.

13 m ROAD

≈30 m spacing

Wider corridor configuration with higher coverage demand.

10 m ROAD

≈20 m spacing

Intermediate road geometry and lighting requirement.

8 m ROAD

≈15 m spacing

Narrower corridor with correspondingly tighter spacing.

FIELD CONSTRAINT • 2020

Engineering during restricted movement.

Travel, site access and face-to-face coordination were more difficult during COVID. The challenge was not one dramatic technical failure; it was keeping a multi-stage survey, calculation, reporting and municipal-communication workflow moving when interaction itself had become a constraint.

ROAD LIGHTING • CASE 03

Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City

Kailali, Sudurpaschim • 2021

NETWORK145.32 km ROUTES58 PRIORITY81 km

Surveying 145 kilometres was only the beginning. The harder question was deciding which kilometres should come first.

SURVEY NETWORK145.32 km

ROUTES58

PRIORITY NETWORK81 km

LED CLASSES60 / 90 / 120 W

FIELD INVOLVEMENT≈5 days

CITY-SCALE PLANNING

At this scale, lighting became a prioritization problem.

The surveyed roads ranged from dense urban corridors to ring roads, lightly settled areas, roads under construction and jungle-boundary routes.

I worked on the road-list data, GPS and physical survey observations, 60 W / 90 W / 120 W requirements, pole spacing, the BOQ and the final feasibility report. A major part of the analysis was separating the full feasible network from an approximately 81 km high-priority implementation package.

145.32 kmsurveyed

→

58 routesevaluated

→

81 kmprioritized

→

BOQ + reportimplementation planning

WHAT I TOOK FROM IT

Large datasets matter only if they become decisions.

The project moved from field measurements to a structured road database, lighting calculations, priority routes, technical specifications, estimates and a municipality-facing implementation plan.

ROAD LIGHTING • CASE 04

Bharatpur Metropolitan City

Chitwan, Nepal • 2021

NETWORK94.89 km CORRIDORS32 FOCUSReuse + smart monitoring

The city already had streetlights. The problem was that many of them were no longer doing their job.

NETWORK94.89 km

LED LUMINAIRES5,474

NEW POLES3,706

EXISTING LOCATIONS REUSED1,768

CONTROL CABINETS92

START WITH WHAT EXISTS

Reuse where possible. Add infrastructure where necessary.

Bharatpur already had lighting infrastructure, including solar units whose usefulness had been reduced by operation and maintenance problems.

The feasibility study therefore considered existing poles as assets rather than automatically replacing everything. Suitable existing locations were retained while new 7 m and 8 m poles, 90 W and 120 W luminaires, distribution cable and feeder/control cabinets were planned where required.

Conceptual multi-function smart street-light pole — Future smart-city functions were explored as optional capabilities, not presented as already installed equipment.

CENTRAL CONTROL

A smarter way to manage thousands of lights.

The proposed CCMS architecture moved beyond independent fixtures. Lighting could be grouped, switched, dimmed and monitored centrally, with fault reporting and GIS-based asset visibility improving maintainability.

The study also explored how the lighting network could later support other smart-city services. These were future platform possibilities rather than claims that every function was installed.

MAINTENANCE-AWARE PLANNING

Sometimes the recommendation was “not yet.”

Feasible did not always mean immediately advisable.

Some roads were unsuitable because of road width, pole distribution or installation difficulty. Other locations could be technically possible but better delayed because of future road expansion, traffic conditions or potential site conflicts.

ROAD LIGHTING • CASE 05

Budhanilkantha Municipality

Kathmandu, Nepal • 2021

NETWORK≈70–80 km LED CLASSES60 / 90 / 120 W TERRAINUrban to steep / forested

One municipality. Completely different roads. One lighting design could not fit them all.

Tarebhir road during Budhanilkantha street-lighting survey — Tarebhir: a very different survey environment from the dense urban corridors below.

Rudreswor Chowk during Budhanilkantha survey — Rudreswor Chowk and existing urban utility infrastructure.

Transformer and utility infrastructure at Gamcha — Gamcha transformer and feeder context.

Ekatabasti road during survey — Ekatabasti: narrow urban road and dense overhead utilities.

Road near BMC School during survey — Road and utility conditions near BMC School.

WHY THIS ONE WAS DIFFERENT

A crowded junction, a river-side road and a steep forest route cannot be treated as the same street.

The survey covered dense residential areas, busy junctions, roads under construction, river-bank corridors, steep roads and forested routes.

Field observations included road width, existing pole condition, traffic and pedestrian activity, settlement patterns and feeder requirements. Some routes could use existing poles; others had uneven pole distribution, underground wiring in progress or required new poles entirely.

DESIGN LEVEL5 lux

POLE HEIGHTS7 / 8 m

LED CLASSES60 / 90 / 120 W

ABC CABLE83.91 km

FEEDER PANELS10

Smart street light lamp, sensor and access-point architecture — Conceptual control, sensing and communications architecture considered in smart street-lighting studies.

NETWORK THINKING

The design considered lighting, communication and maintenance together.

The proposed system combined road-specific luminaires with management software, feeder panels and smart-control capabilities. The portfolio keeps these as proposed system functions and does not imply that optional smart-city features were all installed.

Data note: project documents contain different revisions of the surveyed/planned route total, including 70.7 km and later route schedules approaching 80 km. The portfolio therefore uses “≈70–80 km” rather than presenting an uncertain revision as one exact number.

HIGH-MAST LIGHTING

Some places need one system capable of illuminating the entire space.

High-mast lighting was treated separately from road lighting because the design problem changes from following a corridor to covering major junctions, open urban nodes and large public spaces.

71selected locations

12–25 mmast-height range

10 luxdesign illumination

200 / 400 WLED floodlights

2–12luminaires per mast

HIGH-MAST CASE STUDY

Kathmandu Metropolitan City

Kathmandu, Nepal • Feasibility Study

SITES71 MAST TYPES12 / 12.5 / 16 / 20 / 25 m OUTPUTInstallation-ready technical package

A road can be illuminated pole by pole. A major junction cannot always be treated the same way.

LOCATION SELECTION

The mast height followed the space, not a standard template.

The study evaluated locations where conventional streetlight arrangements could require too many poles or provide poor coverage of large urban spaces.

Selected mast heights ranged from 12 m to 25 m, with 200 W and 400 W floodlights and between two and twelve luminaires per mast depending on the site. Priority locations included major Kathmandu nodes such as Singhadurbar, Maitighar, Tinkune, the Airport, Durbarmarg, Lagan Tole, New Road and Gaushala.

Indicative general arrangement drawing for a 12.5 metre high-mast lighting system — Indicative 12.5 m high-mast arrangement showing the mast, door opening, lantern carriage, wire-rope system, junction box, feeder pillar, foundation connection and maintenance arrangement.

STRUCTURE

Mast and wind loading

Polygonal hot-dip-galvanized mast structures
Wind-loading and deflection considerations
Foundation bolts, base plate and structural detailing
Multiple mast-height classes for different sites

MAINTENANCE

Lower the lights, not the technician

Lantern carriage
Double-drum winch
Wire-rope lifting system
Motorized operation with manual backup

CONTROL

Part of the smart-light network

Smart feeder/control cabinet
Energy metering and communication
CCMS integration
Monitoring and maintenance planning

Foundation reinforcement drawing for 12.5 metre high mast — 12.5 m foundation: pedestal, footing, reinforcement, anchor bolts and cable entry.

Foundation reinforcement drawing for 16 metre high mast — 16 m foundation: the larger mast changes footing dimensions, anchor arrangement and reinforcement demand.

12.5 m12-sided polygon4 foundation bolts • motor/manual winch • up to 8 luminaires

16 mLarger mast & foundation8 foundation bolts • 1.5 HP lifting motor • up to 8 luminaires

20 / 25 mMajor urban nodesHigher-area coverage for large junctions and open spaces

WHAT THE DRAWINGS MAKE CLEAR

The light is only the visible part.

Most of the engineering is underground or inside the mast.

Increasing mast height affects structural loading, base dimensions, anchoring, foundations, lifting equipment, electrical systems and maintenance access. My involvement extended from site assessment and lighting planning into BOQs, specifications, foundation/arrangement drawing coordination, reporting and the final feasibility presentation.

THE COMMON THREAD

Survey data had to become a decision someone could implement.

Across these projects, the repeated responsibility was useful rather than repetitive: go to the road, understand the infrastructure, calculate what is needed, document it clearly, and make the result usable by the municipality.

The individual case studies highlight different challenges so the portfolio shows range without pretending that each municipal assignment was a completely unrelated kind of work.