Municipal Corporation of Delhi transforms its operations

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has been providing civic services to citizens of the national capital since 1958. With a view to getting civic jobs done efficiently, the corporation strengthened its administration at the zonal level. Each zone is headed by a deputy commissioner. It is this person's responsibility to ensure that citizens are given efficient and accountable civic administration, and that their grievances are addressed promptly.

MCD is among the largest municipal bodies in the world, providing civic services to 16.2 million people. Delhi is also the biggest business centre in northern India, and has grown rapidly in recent years. The municipal body has a strength of 103,000 employees. In earlier years, MCD had embarked upon several e-governance initiatives that were not governed by a common, unified vision or strategy. The corporation dreamt big and sought a partner to reinvent the way it worked and implement its vision. It realised it needed an e-governance strategy so that it could successfully develop its e-governance capabilities.

Automatic processes

The goal was to automate work processes across all offices and departments, and create a paperless office culture with seamless information flow. The thrust was on modernising municipal services networks through the increasing use of information and communications technology across all departments and offices. By creating a digital community, MCD aimed to foster personal involvement in the municipal government and to provide citizens with easier access to information through personal computers, kiosks, telephones, etc. The key areas of the MCD project were to computerise hospitals, the engineering department, and the property tax department; design a GPS-based solid waste management system, create an employee information system, and build a staff database. It also wanted to set up a data centre for hosting intranet applications; establish a GIS & CAD centre, PC kiosks and web delivery channels for an Internet payment gateway; and offer a direct debit facility to the public. Last but not the least, it wanted to introduce computer literacy in primary schools through Project Sharada.

In addition to automating its operations, MCD wanted to make all this information available on its website, rewrite business processes, and strengthen security policies and procedures.

IT partner

MCD teamed up with ICICI Infotech with the latter providing a technical architecture for MCD in conformance with e-governance initiative standards, and one that would meet its future requirements.

One objective of the project was to enable anytime, anywhere access to information. This would mean making information services available to citizens round the clock, and encouraging the use of non-proprietary software platforms for application development and the operating system.

A key requirement was to design the network and security architecture, and identify the hardware requirements. Appropriate standards and policies had to be put in place to ensure the efficient running of IT infrastructure and the corporation's web portal. ICICI Infotech also held training programmes for staff members to enhance their understanding of e-governance, and they became more aware of the implications and opportunities that e-governance offers to MCD.

ICICI Infotech will serve as a retainer and implement the project over two years in a phased manner. The scope of the work also includes the identification and recommendation of possible strategic partners and private sector sources for specific project components.

MCD will see significant performance improvement once the project concludes. It will be able to deliver better services to citizens as well as enhance the transparency and accountability of its operations. People will be able to access information online. Streamlined processes and enhanced management reporting capabilities will help MCD make more informed, timely and correct decisions.