Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu launches SWAN to secure digital connectivity

OUR CORRRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, on Friday, launched the State Wide Area Network (SWAN), providing secure digital connectivity to all district headquarters and local administrative centers across the State.

The launching ceremony, held live digitally on virtual mode on the SWAN platform for the first time, was joined by 17 district administrations and 98 block level administrations.

Under this scheme, digital connectivity is being provided between the state headquarters and block level administrative centers via district and sub-divisional headquarters, in a vertical hierarchical structure with a minimum bandwidth capacity of 2 Mbps per link, a communiqué from the CMO said.

Arunachal SWAN (ArSWAN), the scheme under the union Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, envisages establishing 184 SWAN Point of Presence (PoPs) in the state. The 184 sites include one state headquarter, 17 district headquarters and 166 block & horizontal offices.

Addressing the occasion, Pema Khandu requested union secretary for Electronics & Information Technology Ajay Prakash Sawhney, who also attended the program virtually from New Delhi, to extend the network to other unconnected districts created in recent years.

He said as per the project only 17 districts were identified for inclusion under the scheme but in recent years few more districts were created for ease of administration, which also needs to be taken under the ambit of SWAN.

Khandu also requested the ministry to extend all possible assistance to the state's department of Information Technology and Communications to functionalize all remaining PoPs in the state for seamless communication and digital governance.

"SWAN is a reliable network for vertical and horizontal connectivity throughout the state through the means of video conferencing and IP telephone, which we must fully utilize for delivering service to the people at the shortest possible time," the chief minister said.

Interacting live with deputy commissioners of remote districts like Kra Daadi and Longding, which was not possible in earlier video conferences due to poor connectivity, Khandu said the newly launched network would now facilitate seamless and interrupted communication between the state headquarter and district headquarters.

As the district headquarters will be further connected with sub-divisional and block headquarters, Khandu said, now the deputy commissioners could be in direct touch with their subordinate officers through video conferencing and IP telephone and governance would become cost effective and prompt.

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