Himachal gets IT spread plan

Though the state has the roughest mountain terrain in the country, the majority of Himachal Pradesh's government offices are set to become connected through the information technology (IT) network.

According to a state government official, a Rs 72-crore project report prepared by the state government has been sent to the Centre for approval, after which work will start on the project to connect most government offices across the hill state with the state capital.

"The Himachal state wide area network will connect the state secretariat in Shimla to all state government departments, district, sub-divisional and tehsil offices at the village level," a government spokesperson said on Sunday.

"This will help in immediate availibility of data for queries and reports and help bring transparency and speed in the decision-making process of the government," the official added.

Besides, accurate and up to date information can be retrieved with the click of a button, which otherwise would take months to be retreived," the official added.

The state government has already accorded the industry status to IT . Apart from it, entrepreneurs are also being given huge incentives for setting up IT-related projects.

In the already completed first phase of HIMSWAN launched earlier this year, a local area network has been established in the state secretariat, with a provision of 600 nodes. This is expected to provide atleast one personal computer for three officials.

"In only a few months after the e-governance plan was implemented in the secretariat, it has begun to show results in the form of time saving and inclusion of transparency," the official said.