Cisco connects citizen utility centers in AP

NEW DELHI: Cisco Systems Inc., a company dealing in networking for the Internet, has announced that it has successfully connected 18 citizen utility centers for the 'eSeva' project, an e-governance project initiated by the Andhra Pradesh government. The project seeks to redefine citizen services by allowing them to make various forms of payments and facilitates information and B2C (business-to-consumer) services from a single location using state-of-the-art technologies.

The citizens can either avail these services by walking into one of the 18 centers across the twin cities or leverage the Internet from their homes. The online payments are facilitated through payment gateways as a result of tie-ups with several banks. The utility services that are covered under this scheme include bills - water, electricity, telephone, municipal taxes, certificates - birth/death registration, passport applications, permits/licenses, transport department services, reservation, Internet and B2C services.

eSeva is based on a 3-tier network architecture. The transactions are done on a real-time basis. The servers of different departments are connected to the data center, which in turn is connected to the various eSeva centers. Leased lines, with back-up ISDN lines, connect the departmental servers to the eSeva data center. Transactions done in the eSeva centers are recorded directly on the server of the department concerned.

At the core of the eSeva network are Cisco 3600 series routers, connecting the 18 eSeva centers to the various government departments. Within the centers sit local area networks powered by Cisco Catalyst 1900 series switches. The government departments are linked to the eSeva centers via Cisco 1720 routers.

Speaking on the occasion, Phani Kumar, Project Director, eSeva said "The State of Andhra Pradesh is synonymous with Information Technology and the eSeva project is reflective of our commitment to citizen care. Being pioneers it was important to ensure that the project delivered on its promise to our citizens for which a robust and reliable backend was imperative. And Cisco with its clear focus on customer care and end to end solutions was an obvious partner of choice."