Mumbai: A national-level project involving Geographical Information System (GIS), aimed at helping the government deliver public services more effectively, will be taken to the Cabinet shortly for approval, Advisor to Prime Minister on Infrastructure Sam Pitroda has said.

"Work has been going on for a GIS system... It is now ready and we will take it to the Cabinet shortly," Pitroda said at an event here.

The project will see investment of about 12,000-13,000 crore and will help in effective delivery of public services, he said.

Using GIS, applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecom and location-based services can be provided.

He said the government has taken various steps like providing connectivity to all the 2.5 lakh panchayats through optical fibre, creating multiple platforms for delivery of services and launching series of mission mode projects to provide people easier access to public services.

Pitroda highlighted the work done on National Knowledge Network, which has been built to connect universities, colleges, laboratories and industrial clusters at a cost of about 15,000 crore.

The network, in the coming days, will promote collaborative research in a big way, he said, adding the government is spending close to 100,000 crore on building the public information infrastructure in the country.

Stressing on the need for innovation, he said basic solutions addressing the bottom of pyramid were required and India should work on creating its own model, which is affordable, sustainable and scalable.

"All states have been asked to set up Knowledge Commissions. However, barring a few states, the progress on this front has not been satisfactory," Pitroda said.

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