UP gearing up for IT superhighway

Uttar Pradesh is gearing up for the Information Technology (IT) superhighway, wherein data transfer and information sharing in public services domain would become easy, especially for the rural folks.

The government is setting up a State Data Centre (SDC) in Lucknow, which will contain data of all the departments and the different places would be connected to it through district data centre and common service centres known as Jan Suvidha Kendras (JSKs).

The Centre recently approved the setting up of the SDC, which would be done in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

“We are in the process of floating the tender inviting private players to set up the SDC on turnkey basis. The contract would be valid for 5 years,” UP IT and electronics principal secretary Chandra Prakash told Business Standard.

The total capital expenditure on this ambitious project is estimated at Rs 14 crore and the Centre has already released Rs 7 crore. UP Development Systems Corporation Limited (UPDESCO) is the implementation agency for the purpose.

He said the bidding process would be completed within two months and SDC established by March 2010. This will not only check corruption, since human intervention would be omitted, but also deliver time-bound services.

Meanwhile, under the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project, almost 825 blocks had been mapped and concerned efforts are being made with public sector giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to connect the remaining 60 centres.

SWAN is aimed at facilitating and dispensing public utility services to the people in the urban and rural areas with the help of IT, such as land registration, birth and domicile certificates, case certificate etc.

UP is setting up 18,000 JSKs in the rural areas to offer host of services online under one roof. The government has divided the state into 7 zones and each zone would have its Service Centre Agency, which will in turn select Village Level Entrepreneur for establishing rural centres at the village level.

“The pilot project is already underway in six districts, including Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Sitapur, Sultanpur and Rae Bareli,” he added.