News Detail

• The highways ministry will go paperless soon. Under this initiative, all official documents including letters will be converted into electronic format. These can be accessed only by the official concerned and at one time multiple officials can work on the same file.Officials said this would put a check on corruption and irregularities, besides hastening the process of file movement for taking quicker decision. The project will be executed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The NIC will develop a special software for this programme that the ministry has fast tracked in the past couple of months.

• Ministry officials said that they are hopeful of the project talking off in the next couple of months. Recently, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had invited tenders to start the project where all official notes prepared for consideration of inter-ministerial committees would be sent to the ministry in electronic format.NHAI forwards bulky notes to the highways ministry for submitting them before Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) and PPP Appraisal Committee (PPPAC). Highway projects need clearance from these inter-ministerial panels before those are awarded.

• "Now, even our project will be implemented by the NIC. Huge time is wasted in the transportation of files and their shifting from one department to other can be avoided. Electronic document imaging software converts scanned paper documents into electronic documents that can be quickly edited. As soon as the official concerned makes any change in the page, it will be highlighted," said a senior NHAI official.

• Web-based document management system has become popular in other parts of the world. The new system will enable officials to obtain information and documents quickly even when they are on the move; help increase productivity and save time spent on entering information or making changes manually.Highway minister C P Joshi this move after introducing e-tendering system in the NHAI and in the ministry, which has brought greater transparency. "It's only because of transparency in tendering we are getting huge number of bidders. Government earning premium is also one of the benefits of this initiative," Joshi added.

Source