GUWAHATI: The Assam Transport department is reaping the dividends of its online services.
Working towards fulfilling Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's dream of total digitalisation by 2026, the Transport department, which contributes largely to the state's revenue, had launched 45 "contactless services" relating to vehicles, route permits and driving licences.
These were envisaged for doorstep delivery of public services in a hassle-free and transparent manner. As people are now not required to visit the office of District Transport Officer (DTO), the services managed to keep middlemen at bay.
"The contactless services can be availed online from anywhere and at any time. They create an enabling environment through the use of technology to help save precious productive man-days of the public and also remove any scope of entry of any middleman between the office and the public," Transport Minister Parimal Suklabaidya said.
He said it was due to the paradigm shift in service delivery mechanism that over 10 lakh citizens availed contactless services in last one year.
"There is 200% increase in the number of issuance of learners' licence in just one year. More than 12 lakh people availed the contactless services and it is estimated that more than 36 lakh man-days have been saved," Suklabaidya added.
Given the fact that digital literacy is still considerably low in the state and to make online services accessible to all, the department had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Common Service Centre (CSC) so that people can get their work done by visiting their nearest CSC. It has a network of some 20,000 CSCs in Assam.
"To ensure timely delivery of public services, most of these contactless services were notified under the Assam Right to Public Service Act, 2012 with the maximum timeline be fixed for delivery of such services to avoid penal provisions," an official statement said.
On January 1, the CM had flagged off a fleet of 100 CNG buses in Guwahati. Sarma said the CNG vehicles were rolled out keeping in mind climate change and global warming.