However, funding worth Rs 220 crore is still awaited from the Centre for the project. As per the Centre’s national e-governance action plan, a bandwidth of 2 Mbps has been envisaged. The state also has its own plans for a bandwidth of 4 Mbps to connect district collectorates, which would be expanded to 32 Mbps to link all divisions with Mumbai in three years from the commencement of the project.
State IT secretary Ajay Bhushan Pande, quite optimistic about the project, said MSWAN would consist of a three tier structure comprising state headquarters and disaster recovery sites, 35 district HQs, six divisional HQs and 359 taluka HQs.
Citizens would also be able to get information on land records, agriculture and agri business, public works, pensions and provident fund, treasury and accounts.
A VSAT based network presently connects all district collectorates to the Mumbai state HQ. The Mahanet network facilitates broadcast type video conferencing, online data transfer/email capabilities supported on 64 Kbps inbound from 44 remote locations to the Mantralaya (state HQ) and outbound 1,024 Kbps shared with all locations. Mahanet has been specially designed for disaster management after the devastating Latur earthquake in September 1993. The official, however, admitted to bandwidth constraints.
One successful project here is SETU, a two tier application operating at the front end of departments such as the collectorate, panchayat, revenue, excise, municipal bodies and Mantralaya.
An e-Kalyan package has been launched for municipal corporations to provide faster and parameter-based implementation of service delivery systems. Five software modules have been selected. These are water and property tax application, licence and permits, birth and death registration, public grievance and works management.
An E-Seva module is to be implemented in Mumbai in 50 municipal wards. E-Seva, which mirrors Andhra’s I-Setu service, would be launched in April, aimed at providing information on urban issues. Gramdoot, a similar service for rural areas has been launched in the district of Wardha.
Autor: Sanjay Yog
Quelle: The Financial Express, 13.03.2006
