With the effects of global warming already being felt worldwide, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has jumped on the bandwagon to save the environment and to earn a few carbon credits while they are at it. The civic body now plans to replace the bulbs on street lamps to light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. These new bulbs not only help conserve power but are also eco-friendly. In a letter to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), BMC explained the benefits of the LED bulbs as compared to the sodium vapour ones being used now. There are around 4,500 street lamps in the island city and around 1,300 in both the suburbs, maintained by BEST and Reliance Electricity respectively. Thus, collectively, the sodium vapour bulbs not only consume a lot of energy but also emit large quantity of carbon. However, if the street lights are replaced by LED bulbs, it can save up to 85 per cent consumption of energy as well as reduce carbon emissions by nearly 40 per cent. Also, the life span of a sodium vapour bulb is nearly 30,000 hours whereas LED can be used for over 1,00,000 hours. LED bulbs also have no maintenance cost for a period of 10 years. Additional municipal commissioner RA Rajeev said, "We have been successful in getting carbon credits before. These bulbs will help us get more credits as they are eco-friendly.' Rajeev further added that they are still waiting for the green signal from BEST. "In the new era, it is the requirement of each developed and developing nation to create more carbon credit. Also, for a country like India, it is important to save energy.'