Orissa Seeks To Wire Transport Department For E-Governance

Bhubaneswar: : The Orissa government has decided to appoint SBI Cap among four companies to advise it on the introduction of e-governance in the transport sector. The state government’s transport department will sign an agreement with SBI Cap on April 3, appointing the latter as the consultant for e-governance in the transport sector. SBI Cap will prepare a feasibility report and would select the technology for the implementation of the project.

According to sources in the state transport department, the project is aimed at computer networking of the entire commercial operation of the state transport commission, regional transport authorities and the transport check gates at the borders.

While there will be a local area network (LAN) at office level, there will also be a wide area network (WAN) to interconnect the offices and the check gates.

The government is also planning to introduce smart cards for transactions by the customers of the department.

Once the computer network is in place, the licence, registrations and permit related work of the state transport commission and the regional transport authorities will be fully computerised. This would speed up the works and also reduce corruptions, the sources said.

According to the sources, the state governments of Gujarat, Maharastra and West Bengal had already introduced e-governance in the transport sector.

The sources said that the computerisation of the commercial activities of the transport department would also help increase the revenue of the department. The state government received

Rs 178.17 crore in the form of taxes on vehicles in 2000-01. This year it hopes to get about Rs 220 crore. The government has projected a revenue earning of Rs 250 crore from the sector in the coming fiscal.