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TCS to pay penalty for delay in passport project
By siliconindia
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Bangalore: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has got a notice from the government to pay 
2 lakh as penalty for every week of delay in the Passport Seva Project. The IT giant had to ensure that seven pilot Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in Chandigarh and Bangalore were set up by October 1.
The government official said that the delay in the pilot project would impact the final plan of action, which envisaged setting up 77 PSKs and upgrading the present 37 passport offices by January 2010. Once this project gets started, it will take three days to issue passports after police verification and just one day under the tatkal (instant) scheme. But a senior MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) official, who refused to be identified, said that the software developed by TCS was found to be 'defective'.
TCS, an arm of Tata Group is India's largest provider of IT and business process outsourcing company. The MEA official said that TCS was supposed to provide support functions, such as improving citizen interface, managing the technology backbone, the call centres and training.
The passport project is among the Mission Mode Projects, which was launched under the National E-Governance Program last year. The Central Passport Organisation under the ministry issued about five million passports in 2007. The total demand is, however, expected to grow to over 10 million in 2011.
2 lakh as penalty for every week of delay in the Passport Seva Project. The IT giant had to ensure that seven pilot Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in Chandigarh and Bangalore were set up by October 1.
The government official said that the delay in the pilot project would impact the final plan of action, which envisaged setting up 77 PSKs and upgrading the present 37 passport offices by January 2010. Once this project gets started, it will take three days to issue passports after police verification and just one day under the tatkal (instant) scheme. But a senior MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) official, who refused to be identified, said that the software developed by TCS was found to be 'defective'.
TCS, an arm of Tata Group is India's largest provider of IT and business process outsourcing company. The MEA official said that TCS was supposed to provide support functions, such as improving citizen interface, managing the technology backbone, the call centres and training.
The passport project is among the Mission Mode Projects, which was launched under the National E-Governance Program last year. The Central Passport Organisation under the ministry issued about five million passports in 2007. The total demand is, however, expected to grow to over 10 million in 2011.