The Andaman and Nicobar administration aims to complete setting up of 56 Common Service Center (CSC) across the islands for e-governance services by July this year.

"While 10 CSCs, covering a population of 1.5 lakh, are already in operation here, another 14 are to be established by April-end that will cover a total of 2.5 lakh citizens.

"Remaining 32 centres will be opened by end of July covering all major inhabited islands," A&N Islands Commissioner and Secretary Bhupinder S Bhalla said.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands are a cluster of 572 islands inhabited by around four lakh people.

The CSCs are being set up under PPP mode. In these islands Sovetech has been appointed as the State Designated Agency (SDA) for the purpose, while Gurgaon-based Calance Software has been identified as the private partner.

These centres are being equipped with computers and provide public services along with facilities like internet and e-mail to people in rural area.

These CSCs at A&N are providing 41 government services such as electricity bill payment, issuance of various certificates like birth and death.

In addition, registration of various services like fishing boats, permit for fertilisers etc., are delivered to residents without them visiting government offices.

"The more we insulate government personnel from the citizen, the better it is. It will help in corruption-free environment and even citizens will be better informed," Special Secretary Utpal Sharma at Department of Information and Technology, A&N Island said that CSCs are getting good response from residents around.

"The 10 operational CSCs are registering transactions of about Rs 5 lakh per day," Sharma said.

The administration is in the process of adding other services like commercial electricity bill payments, ship ticketing and road tax payment, among others.

The government has set a target to establish over 1.26 lakh CSC across country. Out of this 97,558 CSCs were reported to have been established by end of February.