The piecemeal approach of municipal bodies across Punjab to introduce e-governance in their respective areas has now been dropped. The state has decided to introduce an integrated e-governance project for all municipal bodies.
The project aims at setting up service delivery infrastructure in the form urban suvidha centres (facilitation centres) across the state.
Talking to FE, Karamveer Singh management information systems (MIS) expert at Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC), is overseeing the project, said the major municipal corporations across the state were trying to develop their independent systems for payment of bills, management of data and other civic facilities. ?However, we found this would not work as a long-term approach. Each civic body was trying to set up the system, raising the over-all cost for the state,? he said.
In order to find a solution to the problem, Singh says Punjab hired the services of Deloitte, a global accounting and consulting firm. The consultant started its research in February this year, and the state paid Rs 32 lakh to the firm to carry out the task.
Deloitte submitted two detailed reports to PMIDC earlier this month for setting up the e-governance systems. One is the ‘As Is status report’, and the other report is titled ?Implement automation and e-governance in local government and what to be process maps?. The firm has assessed existing processes, services, systems and manpower skills in the urban local bodies.
Lessons learnt from other e-governance initiatives have also been documented which played a significant role in shaping the urban services across the country.
The reports are being evaluated by PMIDC, and the department will soon issue a request for proposal (RFP) to select a service provider for giving municipal services.
Singh said the state has expedited the process of implementation of the e-governance project. ?The state has decided that all municipal bodies will implement the same systems. Since the municipal staff will not have the expertise to process the data and operate the system, a private management partner will be chosen for the purpose,? he said.
Singh added in this way residents will have the convenience of availing services in their respective corporations and municipalities. These can also be availed at authorised kiosks of the civic body for online services for bill payments and other services.
Singh informed as per the roadmap prepared by the department, the services will be rolled out in phased manner within a year from first quarter of 2011. ?Initially the services will be launched at the major cities like Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana. The estimated cost of the whole project is around Rs 200 crore and due to shortage of funds the state will go for public private partnership (PPP) mode for implementing the project. A long term contract will be signed with the private partner,? he added.