I-T Dept gets tech savvy

Telecom major Airtel on Thursday launched the first phase of Taxnet, a Rs 240 crore e-Governance project that will link 745 Income Tax Department offices in 510 cities over five years.

As a Build-Own-Operate BOT partner on the project, Airtel Enterprise Services has set up a fibre optic network of about 1,100 km exclusively for the project.

By April, about 13,000 people will use this network to pay taxes, file returns and interact with the I-T department across all levels.

In the first phase, announced today, the network will connect 170 I-T locations across the country. By the time it is complete, Taxnet, will be one of the largest Information Technology projects undertaken by the government.