NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Government of India moved a step further in its efforts to strengthen the reach of IT enabled services to the people in the rural areas by setting up 18,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs).

These centers are part of the overall plan of the Government to establish one lakh CSCs in 600,000 villages, said a press release from the Ministry of Communications and IT.

The Government plans to make all the CSCs operational by July next year and agencies have been selected for the setting up of service centres. The final number of CSCs in the country is likely to be over 1,13,000, well above the initial target, the release said.

While the rollout of the centers has been completed in Jharkhand and Haryana, the process would be completed in Gujarat very soon. A number of CSCs have already become operational in West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Orissa, Meghalaya and Tripura, the release said.

A Common Services Centre is an ICT-enabled Service Delivery outlet providing a range of services to the people in the village / town in which it is located. The Government expects this platform could enable government, private and social sector organizations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners.

The centres are being designed as ICT-enabled kiosks having a PC along with basic support equipment like printer, scanner, UPS, with wireless connectivity as the backbone and additional equipment for edutainment, telemedicine, projection systems, etc.

To be implemented throughpublic private partnership, the scheme is estimated to cost Rs. 5742 crore over four years. Of this, the Government of India’s contribution is Rs. 856 crore whereas the state governments would pool in Rs. 793 crore. The balance resources would be mobilized from the private sector.

The CSC roll out is part of DIT’s steps to support Infrastructure under the National E-Governance Plan for enabling anytime anywhere delivery of government services. Department of IT would provide calibrated support through policy interventions and appropriate financial support to create the basic infrastructure for the 100,000 CSCs.