Arunachal MP Tapir Gao calls on Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, discusses SWAN extension

Arunachal Pradesh MP Tapir Gao and Chairman of the State Council for IT & E-governance Doni Nich on Wednesday called on Union Railways, Communication and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at his office in New Delhi and discussed extension of network connectivity in all districts of the state.

Gao told mediapersons that the Union Minister has assured Gao to fund extension of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) in all uncovered districts, up to the block level, for proliferation of internet governance process in the state.

Vaishnaw also assured to visit the frontier state very soon to take stock of its communication and IT scenario, officials said.

The Lok Sabha MP said that state-wide area network is one of the core infrastructure component under the National e-Governance plan of the Government of India. The project once completed will connect the state headquarter with all the district headquarters and blocks through high speed internet connectivity, he added.

In 2008, 16 districts of Arunachal Pradesh were approved under SWAN. Nine additional districts has been included now and 151 Block Development offices are to be connected, Gao informed.

The Centre had approved the scheme for setting up SWAN across the country in March 2005 with a total outlay of Rs 3,334 crore as grant-in-aid to be spent over five years.

Under this scheme, technical and financial assistance are being provided to the states and UTs for establishing SWAN to connect all headquarters up to the block level via district and sub-divisional headquarters in a vertical hierarchical structure.