HYDERABAD, NOV 1: In what may be termed as a major step towards realising the dream of a "paperless administration" in the State, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated Andhra Pradesh State Wide Area Network (APSWAN) and AP Secretariat Campus Network (APSCAN) here on Monday.The Chief Minister held the first of its kind video-conference in the country with ministers, collectors and other senior officials of district administration using the networks.The APSCAN is the biggest campus network in the country linking 2,000 nodes/systems with ATM based optic fibre backbone for high speed voice, video and data communication. Under the network, every work station in each floor will be linked to the floor switch. The floor switches in turn would be connected to the ground switches in each block.All the ground switches will be networked with central switch which would be connected to the APSWAN - SNC terminal in the A block in Secretariat to facilitate connectivity with the district headquarters. Highend servers for E-Mail, Internet and data applications and 128 kbps leased line for round the clock Internet access from any location are some other features of the network. The cost of the project is Rs 5.50 crore.The APSWAN, envisaged as a backbone network for high speed information exchange, both through visual and data mode, will be implemented in convenient phases. In the first phase, the State capital will be linked with Vijayawada, Tirupati and all the 23 district headquarters through 2 mbps optic fibre provided by the Department of Telecommunications (DoTs) free of cost for the first two years. Subsequently, the facility will be extended to mandal and village levels. The local area networks (LANs) which are in operation at present would be linked to the main network.Being set up as a joint venture between Bangalore-based United Telecom Limited and the AP Technology Services, the APSWAN will be implemented on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis.The contract would be in operation for five years andone month and the State Government would have to pay Rs 1.1 crore every quarter amounting to Rs 22 crore in five years to the UTL for providing the services. As the need for expansion of APSWAN grows, the network will be expanded at a cost of Rs 88 lakh per district network centre.Apart from improving the intra-government, citizen-government and government-industry interface for providing efficient and transparent governance, the APSWAN would help in holding online administrative reviews, distance training for field officials and human resource development, besides facilitating live demonstration of best practices to officials at various levels.Through its high speed connectivity, the APSWAN will also support various networks providing anytime anywhere services to people in registration assistance services, issue and renewal of licences, ticketing and reservations, payment of bills and taxes.
