MillenniumPost
Bengal

E-governance to get major boost with upgradation and expansion of government data centre

The Bengal government is all set to upgrade and expand the infrastructure of its Data Centre, which facilitates the information technology (IT) related services of different government departments.

With an estimated investment of Rs 56.64 crore, the state IT department will initiate the project which is supposed to be ready for operation by May 2017.

The government had set up the state data centre (SDC) in the year 2009-2010 under the national e-governance plan to facilitate hosting of IT services for different government departments.

E-governance has been one among the core reforms that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has successfully undertaken in the last five years. Most of the state-run services can now be availed via e-governance, which is easier, faster and apt.

For consolidation of the services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2G (Government to Government), G2C (Government to Citizen) and G2B (Government to Business), the SDC plays a vital role.

These services can also be delivered by the states through common delivery platform seamlessly supported by core connectivity infrastructure such as State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and Common Service Centre (CSC), where connectivity will be extended up to village level. With these shared service centers, implemented and managed by a competent Data Centre Operator (DCO), individual departments can now focus more on service delivery.

“But the infrastructure created by erstwhile Left Front government is no longer a smart process. Technology has reached a new high. Looking at the future, the Chief Minister instructed us to upgrade the state data centre,” said a source at the state secretariat, Nabanna.

According to government officials, the present infrastructure of the data centre needs to be upgraded keeping in mind the growing needs of various government departments.

The state information technology and electronic department has initiated the process to expand and upgrade the data centre with the latest technologies, which includes having a robust and secure cloud computing platform for seamless maintenance and management of huge government data.

It has also been decided that all applications hosted in the data centre would be migrated into the proposed new infrastructure by December next year.

There are 37 departmental applications that are hosted in the data centre.

“The total cost of the project is Rs about 56.64 crore over the next five years, out of which about 55 per cent will be required over the next two years,” the source added.

The new space at West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited (WEBEL) campus at Salt Lake Sector V will soon be ready for Data Centre Operator.

“The bidding process has been initiated. We have already floated request for proposal. We expect that some top level company will win the bid to initiate the work, which will be done in phases,” said Aninda Chatterjee, Executive Director (Finance), WEBEL.
Next Story
Share it