IT park by year end / ...showcased at IITF 2004

IT park by year end

(Hindustan Times)

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, November 1

The Delhi government might boast of the use of information technology in governance but it is the only metropolis in the country which does not have an IT park. At the moment, all software companies operating from the Capital have taken offices on rent.

However, things seem set to change now that the city’s first world-class IT Park near the Delhi Metro’s Shastri Park station is nearing completion.

Officials hope it would be operational by the year-end. Though DMRC is developing the park, the Delhi government has contributed Rs 20 crore out of a total of Rs 110 crore to be spent on its development.

Secretary IT, Prakash Kumar, said six lakh square feet of office space would be available for IT companies at the location.

Ironically, the Centre had included Delhi along with Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai among the cities identified for building of IT parks. While all other cities have built the parks, the project got delayed in Delhi since the DDA did not allot land at a central location. Due to this, IT companies bypassed the Capital and set up shop in Gurgaon and Noida, officials said.

Officials are now calculating the rentals which would be charged from the IT companies. “The rentals have to match that of Gurgaon and Noida to lure companies,” an official said. He added that cheap rentals would be the only incentive for them to set base at Delhi’s first IT park

IT services in Delhi will be showcased at IITF 2004

(Asian Age)

By Our Correspondent

New Delhi, Oct. 31: Citizen-government interface through information technology would the central theme of the Delhi pavilion at the forthcoming India International Trade Fair, scheduled to be held from November 14 to 27 at Pragati Maidan.

The idea is to create awareness among Delhiites about the availability of various services of the Delhi government and other civic agencies at the click of a mouse.

Records show that among the various certificate facilities rendered on the Net by the government, the maximum demand has been for marriage certificates and it has been met with good success.

"The Delhi government will be showcasing over 15 departmental projects in the real time environment to give the people of Delhi the information and feel of the services rendered by the IT departments of various civic agencies in the capital," said Mr Prakash Kumar, information technology secretary of the Delhi government.

"The projects, pertaining to every relevant field like health, education, sanitation, payment of bills and taxes, will be showcased in the Delhi pavilion so that people can play with it as well as utilise the services if they wish," he told The Asian Age.

Citizen Service Bureaux of Municipal Corporation of Delhi and New Delhi Municipal Council will also be available for application and queries.

"People will be able to explore and learn or use the services in sync with real time data showing on the installed computers," said Mr Kumar. The theme for the IITF this year will be "Information Technology and Agriculture."

Mr Kumar said within a span of about nine months of the commencement of the service on the Net, over 800 marriage certificates have been issued.

"Ordinarily, a person wanting a marriage certificate has to apply physically, then visit the offices at least twice before the certificate is delivered. On the Internet, the party has to just go and collect the certificate in a single visit. This has made a big difference," Mr Kumar explained.

Recently, society registration has also gone online and this would save the parties concerned from making visits to the registrar’s office just to check for a name for the society.

With the click of a mouse, one can know whether the name applied for registration was available or not, he said