When the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) announced ‘IT-enabled villages and virtual classroom project’ last year, it painted a rosy picture for the distant and under-developed areas of the metropolitan region.
However, almost a year later, the project has not seen any progress at all.
The IT-enabled villages programme was one of the first major projects that the authority planned after deciding to concentrate on regional infrastructure in October last year. However, not a single step has been taken after the announcement to create virtual classrooms in Thane district and equip the hospitals with virtual healthcare systems.
When DNA inquired about the progress of the project, not a single official was able to give convincing answers.
According to documents available with DNA, the last meeting was held in June this year. The project was announced during the last days of the then-metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad’s tenure, who at present is the chief secretary of the state.
As per the plan, a pilot project was initiated with the help of Valuable Properties in Thane district, where 13 villages were to get virtual classrooms. When asked about which were the 13 villages where these classrooms were running, Shankar Deshpande, in-charge of MMRDA’s Information Technology cell could not even names the villages.
Although the authority has made a budgetary provision of Rs5 crore for 2010-11 and another Rs10 crore for 2011-12, it has failed to construct a studio in the Thane district headquarters for almost nine months now.
A senior official of the Thane district collector’s office said: “Although the classrooms at taluka level are ready, the project is yet to start as the studio at Thane is not ready yet.”
As per the plans, other than virtual classrooms and healthcare services, MMRDA also has plans to set up community facilitation centres, which can provide information about various government schemes, alerts during heavy rains and floods, reservations for state transport buses and railways, e-bill payment for mobiles, land lines and electricity.
