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Maharashtra's State Wide Area Network (MSWAN) provides vertical connectivity to facilitate the seamless integration of 366 offices from the CM's office to the district headquarters right down to the taluka level. By Rajendra Chaudhary
The Maharashtra State Wide Area Network (MSWAN) helps connect the state government's departments and other offices with each other. 366 offices across the state are connected through this network.
Project scope
Following the budgetary allocations made by the Government of India for the SWAN scheme, the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) initiated the requirements of a SWAN with the objective of implementing a robust network to
support the various e-governance initiatives being planned by the state as well as the central government. The state appointed SETU Maharashtra as the State Implementation Agency (SIA) to deploy the SWAN.
The SWAN is the backbone for effective communications providing a converged network that allows not only better information exchange between various government departments but also improves the delivery of citizen services. Detailing the scope of the SWAN project, Vijayalakshmi Bidari Prasanna, Director IT, Government of Maharashtra, said, "To facilitate the smooth exchange of information within various government departments and enable good governance, it was necessary that we created an infrastructure and MSWAN gives us the starting point."
The project involves vertically connecting 366 offices including the state headquarters (Mumbai - Mantralaya) with the district headquarters, divisional headquarters, and the taluka headquarters. Additionally, a number of government offices and state agencies dispersed horizontally also make use of this network. The estimated number of such departmental offices is said to be over 2,000.
While the vertical connectivity facilitates seamless integration of the government machinery in the state from the state to the taluka level, horizontal connectivity knits together departments such as the police, treasury, transport departments, food & civil supplies, employment offices and municipal corporations. The latter will result in improving the internal efficiencies of the concerned departments. The state also wanted the network (SWAN) to support voice, data and video-based media applications and unique departmental applications.
Towards the end of 2005, the GoM hired the services of PwC for scoping the project and its requirement. Following detailed analysis of the existing infrastructure and several rounds of talks with various government officials, PwC helped GoM draft...