Use IT to provide better service to people

[sajiv]

Use IT to provide better service to people

BANGALORE: As part of the Computerised Service Delivery System at Transport Offices in the State, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday launched smart cards for driving licences and registration certificates of motor vehicles.

Describing the smart cards as "citizen-friendly" during the launch at the Banquet Hall in Vidhana Soudha, he called upon all the departments to emulate the Transport Department in leveraging the information technology tools to provide better service to the people.

Tamper-proof
The smart card — a plastic card bearing a microprocessor based chip of 16 KB — allows for digital storage of data, which can be easily accessed and tamper-proof at the same time.

The smart cards are also expected to become part of the national database of vehicles and driving licence.

The project, which becomes operational in the five RTOs of Bangalore from Thursday, will progressively be completed in the remaining 50 RTOs of the State by September 2009. With the existing driving licences and registration certificates to be converted into smart card in two years, the project is expected to cover 82 lakh vehicles and around 90 lakh vehicle-users.

Presiding over the function, Transport Minister R. Ashok said his department planned to start a drive to issue driving licence smart cards to applicants at camps organised in different parts of the State.

Also, he said that the introduction of smart cards for registration certificates would end the menace of forging vehicle documents.

Insurance
Mr. Ashok said the smart card driving licence, which comes at a cost of Rs. 200, had an accident insurance of Rs. 1,00,000 for death or Rs. 50,000 for permanent disability for a period of one year from the date of issue.

The smart card software has been developed by the Karnataka unit of National Informatics Centre.

The Transport Department is implementing the Computerised Service Delivery System at Transport Offices across the State in coordination with Rosemerta Technologies Pvt. Limited under a private public partnership (PPP).

Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao, Secretary, Transport Department, M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda and Commissioner for Transport and Road Safety Bhaskar Rao were present.