The Hindu              15.05.2013

KMC to go hi-tech to keep a tab on civic works

JNTUK develops Works Monitoring System to improve transparency.

In a city with 50 municipal divisions and various development works progress, it is a tedious task for the civic authorities to keep a tab constantly on the status of the works and their progress. It is also difficult to hold someone responsible for the delay in completion of the task and for the poor quality of works in the bureaucratic setup. To address this issue, a team of technocrats from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada (JNTUK) has come out with a software titled ‘Works Monitoring System’ that enables the higher authorities to know the status of various works and to take action against the persons concerned just by making a few clicks on the keyboard.

The Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) is taking up various works such as laying of cement concrete roads and drains, construction of buildings for schools, health centres and anganwadis and taking up repairs to the existing assets on a regular basis. The works will be done through civil contractors and the engineering staff of the civic body has to monitor the works periodically and pass the bills.

Inordinate delay

However, it is found that there is an inordinate delay in completion of certain works, poor quality in many works and passing of bills in advance for some projects. As a good number of works are going on simultaneously in various parts of the city, it is proved to be a difficult to depend on manual inspections alone.

In a bid to find a solution to this problem, Municipal Commissioner V. Ravi Kumar has sought the help of J.V.R. Murthy, Director of the Centre of Excellence e-Resources Development and Deployment of the JNTUK. Dr. Murthy and his team have already developed ‘Jana Mytri’ software for the police, which is now being implemented at the State-level.

“The exclusive software for the Municipal Corporation provides an opportunity to record the entire process of works from the tender-level to the final billing stage. It is easy to hold the individuals responsible for any delay or poor quality of output, as the employee and position identifications are given separately,” explains Dr. Murthy.

The procedure ensures transparency in the transactions and quality in the works, he says. The new system is expected to be launched very soon, as the civic authorities are waiting for a formal nod from the higher-ups.