In an effort to create awareness about the usefulness of ICT and e-governance, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has joined hands with Ministry of Railways to run an exhibition train across the length and breadth of the nation. With the underlying theme of Sports and Information Technology, the train would run from April this year till 1 October.
“DIT would exhibit and demonstrate its capability and the work done by its affiliated entities in the field of e-governance, infrastructure, technology relevant to rural India and language interfacing technology. Moreover, the end-date is coinciding with the opening of the 2010 Commonwealth Games,” said a DIT official without disclosing the investment involved in the initiative.
The exhibition train would comprise 11 coaches of which five would be run by the Railway Sports Board and six coaches by the DIT. Additionally, there would be two generator vans and one coach each for housing equipment and an AC coach for housing people on board. The train would cover all the capital cities and have about 50 halts en route.
| DIT's exhibition train to showcase * Citizen-centric applications and services |
The train would exhibit the work of various DIT departments like the National e-Governance Plan, Common Services Centre scheme, National Informatics Centre, Technology Development of Indian Languages and the Software Technology Parks of India.
The Railways will provide raw coaches for exhibition and wagon to house the equipment besides undertaking maintenance, running and complete operation of the train. DIT would separately take up design and fabrication of the interiors of their respective coaches and also would carry out all other activities, like deployment of manpower, V-SAT equipment and supporting publicity campaigns.