The union minister for state for communication and IT, Sachin Pilot has announced that government will launch a special train to showcase e-governance in the country. T

he joint endeavor of Department of IT and Ministry of Railways is to launch a mobile exhibition on train, to showcase vision and achievements in IT sector, especially e-governance. This train, on the theme of Sports and Information Technology, is to be run across the length and breadth of the nation.

The minister disclosed that the national e-governance programme (NeGP) aims to leverage IT to deliver Government to Citizen services like birth and death certificates, land records, and information related to agricultural techniques at a fraction of the cost and time involved than is happening now. It would also provide a direct interface of citizens with their government, and allow them to proactively participate in policy formulation and execution, he added. This would add a whole new dimension to our participatory democracy, he said.

The train is expected to be 15-coaches long; 6 exhibition coaches for DIT, 5 exhibition coaches for the Ministry of Railways, 1 engine, 2 power cars, and 1 SLR. The train will have nearly 40 halts. Efforts have been taken to coincide some of the halts with the passing of the Commonwealth Games baton at those locations with a view to maximize visibility of the train. Giving details about the train, Pilot said that DIT will exhibit and demonstrate its capability, capacity and the work done by its affiliated organizations in the fields of e-governance, infrastructure, technology relevant to rural India, language interfacing technology, etc. To leverage from the exhibition train’s outreach across the nation, DIT proposes to showcase the ICT potential through its various arms, such as National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), DOEACC, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), and Common Service Centre Scheme(CSC).

The ICT exhibition coaches would also accommodate the achievements and promise of the Indian IT and ITES industry, considering their contributions to the IT success story of India. As a special case, Ministry of Railways has waived off all costs related to operation of the train.