Finally, Kochi takes to e-governance

KOCHI: The long wait for the implementation of the City Corporation’s prestigious e-governance programme, which has been delayed for more than a decade, has ended. The civic body has already started providing its services online but the formal launch of the e-governance programme will be held within a couple of weeks. “The first modules of the e-governance programme including registration of death, birth and marriage, stores and public grievances are already functional and the public have started accessing it online. We are now waiting for the Local Self-government Department (LSGD) minister’s date for the formal launch which will be in the next couple of weeks,” said Mayor Soumini Jain.

The project mainly aims at bringing major services offered by the civic body online. Once it is fully implemented, services offered by the City Corporation such as utility management, property tax payment and building approvals can be accessed online. The other major modules that will be brought under the e-governance umbrella include issuance of ownership certificates, trade licence and regularization of buildings with penal charges.

The Rs 8.78 crore JNNURM-funded programme was mired in controversy and caught in technical glitches leading to the inordinate delay in its commissioning. Both the previous and present civic administrations had come under sharp criticism for the delay. The civic body launched the programme nearly 10 years ago. Though the civic authorities roped in two agencies, Information Kerala Mission (IKM) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), for the project, neither could complete the project on time.