Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation to launch app for better governance

Aamar Sahar, a pilot project of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on information and communication technology to leverage the governance is set to be completed by the end of this year.

The most attractive thing of the project is an App, which will provide various civic services. Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation will be the first civic body in the state which would implement such an App for its residents.

“The total project will complete within 3 months of time. The people would be able to use the app very soon. Bidhannagar is the area, where many elderly residents live alone, while their son and daughter are live in out of the state. These people can pay taxes, apply for licenses by the app from anywhere of the world,” said Sabyasachi Dutta, Mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.

“The app will improve efficiency and effectiveness in interaction between BMC and its citizens and other stakeholders, like non-governmental organizations as well as private sectors. It will also improve the quality of internal local-government operations to support and stimulate good governance. It will bring about transparency and accountability in the governance. It will enhance the interface between BMC and its citizens. It will also help in the improvement of delivery of services to citizens. It will also improve revenue,” said the Mayor.

BMC is the youngest Municipal Corporation in Bengal with 41 Wards serving a population of approximately 6.50 lakh. BMC is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of Bidhannagar or Salt Lake City and parts of Rajarhat. BMC was formed in 2015, after merging the erstwhile Bidhannagar Municipality, Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality and Mahisbathan Gram Panchayat – II.

It was really important to introduce innovative initiatives to develop public places into Wi-Fi zones so that people can register their opinions and complaints regarding civic facilities using the public places.

“This app will be a pioneering project, which the BMC is going to introduce. The people can use a host of facilities using various apps in their mobile to get information related to Bidhannagar. Civic authorities are also contemplating interconnecting various apps that are already in use,” Mayor added.

Bidhannagar City Police has already developed a mobile application which residents can use for various purposes. “The basic idea is to give citizens a single platform where they can perform multiple actions with interactive features. An app for the civic services will be great,” said Sourav Bhattacharya, an AB Block resident of Salt Lake.

However, according to a BMC insider, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may officially flag off ‘Amar Sahar’ project. It is to be recalled that the CM had sketched the logo of the BMC.