Taking advantage of the way technologies, J&K e-Governance Agency has initiated an exercise to make available the facility of making free, unlimited voice calls to every citizen of J&K within an identified Closed User Group (CUG) in the State. To be rolled out over the next three years, the facility will have a revolutionary impact on how citizen feedback from every nook and corner of the State will reach the highest quarters of the Government directly. It will also finally enable the benefits of telemedicine and e-learning to flow to every part of the State.
The ‘dream’ is technically feasible by using the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), that millions around the world already use to access such free facilities as Skype and Google Talk and by leveraging the over Rs. 100 crore worth of infrastructure that has already been sanctioned to J&K under such Central sector projects as State Data Centre (SDC) and State Wide Area Network (SWAN).
An Expression of Interest (AOI) inviting Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has already been issued in this regard and is available at the IT department’s website at http://jkit.nic.in/. The last day of receiving EOIs is October 12, 2009.
The revolutionary initiative has been launched in the background of the realization that successful e-Governance is not just about automating existing systems and processes, nor doing the same things cheaper, faster and more conveniently, but to provide responsive services which can make a real and tangible improvement to the way ordinary people lead their lives. This necessitates having “anywhere-to-anywhere” service links first and therefore, a seamless integration for all ICT infrastructures.
This ‘all-inclusive’ platform intends to facilitate the State Government to address, besides the silo challenge and issues of interoperability, the poor and inadequate connectivity that plagues J&K. The stability and 24*7&365 availability of Network is important to facilitate J&K Chief Minister’s vision of “e-Governance at the doorstep of the common man” and to generate immense employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth in setting up internet kiosks and in selling and servicing special mobile and fixed-line VOIP phones.
It is in this background that the Government of J&K, as a responsible and responsive Government, is looking to select a party/consortium that can build an “end-to-end infrastructure” (SWAN, SDC & Internet Service Kiosks), duly supported by the till now missed out e-Governance Projects such as Telemedicine and e-learning, if possible. The party/consortium should ideally have:
An ‘A’ category ISP license and also, preferably a dedicated spectrum for J&K for securing a stable network till the last mile. Adequate experience in e-Governance projects in India. Experience in deploying/establishing networks in hilly/mountainous terrain similar to Jammu and Kashmir. Experience in setting up data centres of Level 3 (composed of multiple active power and cooling distribution paths, redundant components and maintainable with over 99.9% availability). Willing to invest in SDC and also on setting up of the Internet Service Kiosks to facilitate value added services such as Telemedicine and e-Learning Programmes. The capability to set up voice/data/video network and set ups for any CSC/Internet Service Kiosk/individual in any part of J&K.
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