First phase of West Bengal State Wide Area Network (WBSWAN) implementation connects all district Headquarters to State Secretariat
KOLKATA, India - June 5, 2002 - Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, has partnered with the West Bengal Government to provide technology and solutions for the West Bengal State Wide Area Network (WBSWAN). The WBSWAN is the backbone of West Bengal's e-governance initiative to provide Voice, Video and Data communications on a converged IP-based network. In the first phase, the network spans between the State Secretariat and all 17 District Headquarters, which are connected through 2 Mbps links. This network allows the state government to adopt a comprehensive e-Governance policy to make the transition from an IT-aware Government to an IT-enabled Government.
The WBSWAN will increase efficiencies and drive down communication costs for the Government. It will not only provide real-time data transfer and aggregation for the various departments but also provide multiple modes of communication. For citizens it will provide a single point of sourcing wide variety of information such as land records, telemedicine, jobs amongst others.
"We decided to partner with Cisco Systems as it pioneered the use of IP and Internet infrastructure for its own use realizing valuable savings. The support from Cisco Systems has been acclaimed industry-wide globally and locally here in India.," said Shri Manabendra Mukherjee, Minister-in-Charge, Department of IT & Environment. "Our aim was to start small and rapidly scale up. Cisco's scalable and open architecture allows us to expand with minimal investments yielding in quicker returns."
The immediate plan is to expand this network to connect eight important cities across the state. The second phase will integrate the sub-divisional and block offices in this network. The ultimate aim is to reach each gram panchayat over the next 2 to 3 years.
"E-Governance has been viewed as an important vehicle in enhancing the administrative efficiency and effectiveness to improve the provision of public services using information technology. The ease and economy of delivering applications and services using networks have led decision-makers to recognize the role of web technologies in providing a citizen interface. We are pleased that we have been given an opportunity to help the West Bengal government implement its plans," said Manoj Chugh, President India and SAARC, Cisco Systems.
The solution, which forms the whole implementation, include Cisco 7507 router for the State switching Centre and Cisco 3661 router for aggregation at the district switching level. The IP Voice Gateway technology provides TDM voice call termination in each location and converts this call to IP for transport. State Capital as well as each District Headquarter will have Video Conferencing through Multipoint Conferencing Unit (MCU) at Kolkata.
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