Wipro to gain criminal tracking project
New Delhi: IT major Wipro is all set to win a deal which intends to electronically link police stations nationwide and digitize criminal records for flawless flow of information in one of India's largest e-governance projects, reports Surabhi Agarwal from the Mint.
According to the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project, the company emerged as the lowest bidder among eight finalists in the auction for the Rs. 2,000 crore. CCTNS is one of the 27 missions under the government's National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), which was unveiled in 2006. The project will digitally integrate at least 14,000 police stations as well as nearly 6,000 higher offices such as district police headquarters, commissionerates and state police headquarters. It will also link state crime record bureaux with the National Crime Record Bureau to create a database with real-time access.
Besides managing the police force better and strengthening the national security, this system will let any individual's police record to be tracked from anywhere in the country within minutes. Wipro's task will be to build a so-called core application software (CAS), that all states will have to adopt. The initial contract for CAS is said to be around Rs. 40 crore, while each state will have to spend Rs. 60-70 crore to meet the requirements of the project.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram recently said the CCTNS project must meet its 2012 completion deadline under the 11th Five-year Plan. "Though we are still working on the timelines, Wipro will have to finish the project before a year," said a home ministry official.
TCS, Infosys Technologies and Tech Mahindra, Dublin-based technology firm Accenture and French company Capgemini SA were among the other bidders for CCTNS. The Nataional Institute for Smart Government, a joint venture between the government and IT industry lobby group Nasscom, is the consultant for the project.
However, according to officials of the home ministry and the department of information technology (DIT), the final terms and conditions are being worked out and the contract could be announced as soon as within the next 10 days.
