Government approves Rs 1788 Crore for State Wide Area Network Scheme

The Government has approved proposals from 32 States and Union Territories for Rs 1787.58 Crore under the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) Scheme of Department of Information Technology. Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh have completed the implementation in their respective states.

Of the total of 29 States and six UTs where the project is going to be implemented, 14 States are in an advanced stage of completion of the project, while the remaining states are executing the bid process. All SWANs are expected to be completed by September 2009.

With an estimated outlay of Rs. 3334 Crore, the SWAN Scheme was approved by the Government in March 2005 under the National e-Governance Plan. SWAN was to be extended to the entire country within a period of five years. An Empowered Committee considers and approves SWAN proposals from individual State/UT. After the approval of the Empowered Committee, a State/UT level Implementation Committee is responsible for implementation of individual project.

Site identification and getting it ready for handing over to the Network Operators are the major challenges for operationalisation of the network. The lack of reliable connectivity with appropriate bandwidth is a problem in some of the States, especially in the Northeast region.

Source : Equity Bulls

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