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Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation
URL: http://www.egovamc.com
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Total Solution to Urban Governance
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E-GOVERNANCE
Means
the delivery of Government services
and information to the public using
electronic means. and this
facilitates an efficient, speedy
and transparent process for disseminating
information and delivering to the
public by the Government.
SUCCESS
of e-governance depends on use of
Information Technology in mobilization
of Government resources and utilization
of these scarce resources with an
aim to provide better services to
citizens.
Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation
used “e-city”
(e-governance) as a tool
to deliver all its functions to
3.6 million citizens of the city
through recently created six City
Civic Centers (e-city centers) located
in five zones of the City.
Each e-City Center is equipped with:
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10
nodes managed by well trained
operators to attend to the need
of citizens. |
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Every node is equipped to deliver
any activity either it is building
plan permission or shops &
establishment license or complaints
regarding civic amenities or
payment of taxes etc.
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The
operator processes the request
of the citizens and issue necessary
licenses or receipts, to the
pan-instantly. |
Thus
it has proved to be a
“ONE SPOT- NON STOP”
tool to facilitate the citizens
of Ahmedabad.
The city civic centers located at
very convenient locations with pleasant
ambience created a user friendly
approach to get the things done
immediately.
Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation is the first
in the country to cover total solution
of all municipal activities through
e-Governance. The building
plan permission through e-governance
is first of its kind in the country
and fall in the category of very
few cities in the world which have
such facility. The e-city
concept has become unique and has
been welcomed overwhelmingly by
the citizens, businessmen, builders
and other institutes, etc.
VARIOUS
SERVICES / FACILITIES OFFERED :
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Online
payment system |
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Octroi
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Motor
Vehicle Tax |
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Online
complaints on civic amenities |
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Building
plan permissions |
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Birth
& Death Registration and
Certification |
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Online
information on infrastructural
works and tenders |
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Engineering
Module |
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Online
issuance of Shops and Establishment
licenses |
Details:
Utility Driven
Web-Site: http://www.egovamc.org/ or
http://www.egovamc.com/
The
World Wide Web or the Internet provides
the most cost-effective method of
reaching people. The web can
not only help in speedy dissemination
of information and can also help
citizens to access various services
which hitherto required their physical
presence. In order to realize
this objective, the AMC Web Site
was launched under this project.
While developing the web site, it
was made very clear that it would
not merely be information driven
web site but also be a utility driven
and act as a single window to gain
access to AMC intranet and local
area network.
As
the City Civic Centre is on the
network and connected to the main
server which in turn is connected
through the global internet protocol,
the citizens can track the status
of their application through the
Web site. The system also
helps managers to carry out performance
audit and audit trailing of each
activity.
The
three tier architecture restrict
the access of public to the application
and main servers. The intermediate
Linux server installed between web
server and main server prevent the
access of internet users to access
intranet applications. The
bio-metric authentication of intranet
users provide fool proof security
to the system. Further, adequate
fire walls at every entry stage
ensure full security to the system.
HOW
IT IS BENEFITING THE PUBLIC?
Since
September 2002, more than 24,000
general complaints have been received
which have been attended within
24 hours except a very few major
complaints related to change of
total pipelines in sewerage or in
water supply system. More
than 50% of the complaints happened
to be with regard to property tax.
Despite Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
has implemented the Unit Based Tax
calculation system, still plenty
of queries pour in related to their
neighbour’s tax than their own.
Therefore all ten lakh property
tax calculations have been kept
in public domain where anyone can
access the method of tax calculation
of any property in the city.
Further it was facilitated to make
the tax payment through infinity
payment gateway of ICICI Bank or
through credit card. This
enabled the citizens to clear their
doubts and pay the taxes without
undergoing any harassment or to
stand in long queues. Hence
property tax collection increased
phenomenally after the implementation
of e-Governance Project.
Normally
to get a Building Plan Permission,
it used to take anywhere between
six months to two years, because
of intricate system and manual processes.
These manual processes encouraged
abundant bad practices and to eliminate
this, the issuance of Building Plan
permission was brought in e-governance
project. And now the Building Plan
permissions are delivered instantly.
This was a big pleasant surprise
to public, builders and other institutes,
and now they are all overwhelmingly
happy to get instant approval.
Another area which received overwhelming
appreciation was the issuance of
Shops & Establishment licenses.
This also had been center for bad
practices where a lot of middlemen
were involved. Now the instant
issuance of license in all the six
City Civic Centers has eliminated
humane interference. Similarly Birth
& Death Registration are also
covered in the e-governance project.
KEY BENEFITS
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All
Departments are integrated |
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Municipal
Corporatin is more responsive
and transparent |
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Chances
for corruption eliminated |
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Quicker
service to citizens |
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24-hour
remote access to AMC transactions
and services |
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Payment
gateways and Electronic transactions
eliminate manual intervention
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Higher
revenue and enhanced cash flow
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Better
understanding and goodwill from
citizens |
CONCLUSION:
Initially
one could not believe that this
Project can be implemented successfully
considering the volume of data involved
and the manner in which information
is stored. However, systemic
approach of every activity and the
greater level of employees’ involvement
in preparation of flow charts and
design of the system enormously
helped to complete the project in
time and successfully implement
the same. The citizens felt
very happy about the sudden transformation
of AMC which is now comparable to
any city of developed countries.
The
key to success is that the employees
own the system and they operate
continuously. The internal
information and the external changes
of technology were synthesized by
the Task Team of different civic
activities of the Municipal Corporation
and they came out with easy and
simpler solution. The investment
involved in the whole process turned
out to be negligible compared to
similar IT projects elsewhere in
the world. This could be achieved
because of the full involvement
of the employees at every stage
of implementation of the project.
Perhaps the implementation of e-Governance
project in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
may be a unique case in the world
because of its total in-house participation
in preparation and implementation.
By
- P.Panneervel(IAS), Municipal Commissioner
Ahemedabad Municipal Corporation
1-5-2003
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