Pune to get 14 e-enabled centers

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) would establish 14 e-enabled citizen
facilitation centers in 14 ward offices of the city soon.

Citizens can obtain NOC, birth certificates, etc. from these centers. The
Ahmedabad-based Microtech Systems has developed the software for the centers.

All the citizens are required to do is to visit one of these centers, fill in
the application form and attach the relevant documents. The citizens will then
receive a receipt with a number and a specific date to visit the office again to
check whether the application has been accepted or not.

The software for each of these services has been specifically designed since
documents and information required for each varies. Officials said that the
software packages for health licenses are ready. The entire software is expected
to be ready in the next two months.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation used 'e-city' (e-governance) as a
tool to deliver all its functions to 3.6 million citizens of the city through
its 16 city civic centers (e-city centers) located in five zones of the city
through Microtech Systems.

Nalin Patel, Founder Director, Microtech Systems said that over seven vendors
were involved in the Pune project before his company came into the picture.
However, the past successes tilted the scales in his favor and his company
bagged the project.

While Microtech Systems will develop the software packages, a company based
here, Vidya Online, will look after the implementation of the project on a daily
basis. The hardware is being supplied by another city-based firm called Priya
Business Systems.

Patel pegged the total cost of the project at less than Rs one crore and said
the work on the centers was in full progress and the facilitation centers would
start functioning within a few weeks.

During the first stage of the project, the company will develop software to
take care of property taxes, bill collections, birth dates, licenses and general
citizens complaints. The second stage of the project aims at an ambitious
attempt to sanction building plan permissions.

The officials will select four out of the 14 centers for this purpose at a
later stage, he said. There are plans to bring in the tendering process also
online.

Meanwhile, the city-based Vidya Online is reported to have deployed around 50
people on the project.

Nanda Kasabe

Pune (CyberMedia News)