Three states complete SWAN projects

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu have successfully implemented State-Wide Area Network (SWAN), the backbone infrastructure for rolling out the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

All the three states have opted for the private-public partnership (PPP) mode for the project.

According to the SWAN implementation status report released by the Ministry of Information Technology, implementations are in progress under the PPP mode, in Jharkhand, Kerala, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Assam and Punjab.

Other states where implementation is in progress under the National Informatics Model (NIC) are Chandigarh, Delhi, Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

These states are expected to complete the project before October this year. Letters for Intent and contract negotiation are underway in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

These two states, which have also adopted PPP mode, will be completing the SWAN implementation by December this year.

While the SWAN financial bid is in evaluation for Uttarkhand, bid process has been initiated for Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. All the three states are expected to complete the project by December this year.

The request for proposal (RFP) has been approved for Rajasthan and Chattisgarh; the RFP for Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir are under review and finalization.

These states will have to complete the SWAN implementation by March 2009. The Lakshadweep NIC model proposal is under review and Andhra Pradesh is in the process of preparing its proposal under the PPP mode.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Goa have opted out of SWAN.

(jaik@cybermedia.co.in)