Ease of doing business: KMC mulling initiatives under its e-governance plan

Kolkata: With governments adapting to technology to make services rendered to the public easy and transparent, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) too has several plans in the pipeline under its ‘e-governance’ objective for Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).

According to a KMC official, the civic body in recent times has shifted several of its services online, drawing positive responses from citizens. “KMC is one of the leading municipal corporations in India that has been able to switch to the online mode for providing essential services to ensure citizens can utilise them from the comfort of their homes rather than having to queue up outside the headquarters. This initiative has further gained momentum after the Covid pandemic where online became the choice for everyone,” said the official.

It is learnt that a new application is in the pipeline to detect and manage illegal car parking with integration to VAHAN app of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India. In addition to this, KMC sources said an online facility for night route parking permission is also going to be launched soon.

The civic body has already launched a car parking app to capture entry/exit details of vehicles at various parking lots through hand-held point of sale devices to facilitate hassle-free payment, collection of parking fees along with authentic receipt generation.

Further, sources confirmed that the second version of the e-governance system of the KMC is going to appear publicly within a few months with more features to make it citizen friendly and ensure transparency. The new version of the system will also be given a new look and feel.

Additionally, integration of ‘thika’ sanction through EoDB construction permit is also going to be on board soon with access to ‘thika’ controller, Government of West Bengal.

For taxpayers, KMC has already introduced a second payment gateway for making e-payments through UPI, e-wallets etc. apart from the conventional ways like credit/debit cards and net banking. The Chatbot service ‘Show to Mayor’ was also launched so that citizens can click photos and show to Mayor Firhad Hakim any civic body related issue within the KMC area. This has strengthened the existing grievance redressal system of the KMC since all such grievances through the chatbot are sent directly to the concerned officers and get resolved within seven days with notifications to the concerned complainants, said a KMC official.