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"The work doesn't consist of replacing the light bulbs alone. If necessary, also the replacement of lamp poles, cables, control systems and all related things will be supported. Digging works on the streets have been reckoned with too," Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kristen Michal said in a press release.

He said that, as a result, municipalities will be able to save significant amounts of money and will no longer have to resort to switching out street lighting during the night to save on electricity bills.

As part of the project, at least 22,000 street lighting points will be switched to state-of-the-art LED technology. In the case of a similar earlier project involving seven towns, the amount of electricity needed for street lighting decreased by 66 percent on the average. About half of the increased efficiency was a result of the use of new lighting equipment and the other half of smart control of street lighting.

In addition, increasing the efficiency of electricity consumption allows to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the minister said.

The activities are financed using money from the European Cohesion Fund and external funding covers up to 80 percent of the total project cost. The maximum amount of money to be disbursed to an individual project is 3 million euros.