National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Director General N K Tripathi today said that the ambitious Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System, which will digitally connect police stations in the country will be put in place in October this year.

"CCTNS will be launched in October this year," Tripathi told reporters at the 13th All India Conference of Directors of Finger Print Bureaux which started here today.

Tripathi said the planning commission has given nod to the Rs 2000 crore project which will be implemented by the states, and added that 14,000 police stations will be connected to this system.

Tripathi said that the software for the CCTNS was being developed, and the system will use broadband network.

Trial run of CCTNS will take place in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Assam in March, he said.

NCRB Director General said that introduction of CCTNS will lessen the work load of the lower-rung police officers who spend a lot of time registering cases and maintaining records.

Complaints can be registered online under this system and the status of the probe can be tracked with just a click of the mouse by the complainants, Tripathi said.

The investigating officers too will benefit, as keeping track of the criminals and crimes would be easier, he said. Also, the "crime trends" can be easily worked out because of the system, he said.

"Any police station record can be easily accessed by the NCRB once the CCTNS is in place," Tripathi said.