Himachal to kick off HIMSWAM project within a fortnight

Shimla, Jan 11 (UNI) Much-awaited Himachal Statewide Area Network (HIMSWAN) project was today put under test and was expected to be implemented fully in a fortnight.

HIMSWAN, the e-governance project aimed to connect the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat with various government departments throughout the state at district, sub-divisional and tehsil level, official sources said.

Teams of technicians have been sent in the field across the state to test the constituents of the project to include any improvement required,'' said an official of department of Information Technology, adding that the test would carry on for next 12 days, following which the project would be ready for implementation.

The HIMSWAN project, which costs Rs 100 crore was scheduled to be operational by April 2007, but was pushed back by delays, sources said.

''Delay in procurement of network equipments and some other procedural hurdles contributed in prolonging accomplishment of this project within pre-determined time,'' official source said.

He revealed that the project once functional, would link State Secretariat with various government departments at district, sub-divisional and tehsil offices for immediate availability of data for queries and reports.

Besides, delivering services vertically down to tehsils level, SWAN would also provide horizontal connectivity to all government departments and organisation, he added.

Through the HIMSWAN, all government departments will be connected by high-speed WAN throughout the State down to Tehsil, Sub-Tehsil and Block level.

The initial phase of this project has already been completed under which (HIMSWAN-I) a Local Area Network has been established in State Secretariat with the provision of 600 nodes. Rs 1.55 crore has been spent during the completion of first phase, he added.

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