LAHORE, March 11: The National Database and Registration Authority is launching a Bill Machines project for making hassle-free payment of utility bills in the city shortly. Nadra Director-General (Public Service Division) Brig Mirza Babar Aziz Beg told the press here on Saturday.

He said the automated kiosks (bill machines) would provide an electronically secure authenticated scratch card collection round the clock. The system would be backed by a strong customer care support through on-site supervisors and the Nadra call centres.

In the first phase, he said bill machines were being set up at Nadra Swift Registration Centres (NSRCs) and utility companies’ service centres, after that these machines would be installed at densely populated areas.

He said the project had been designed on pre-defined international parameters with flexibility to provide an access and operability control to the user. This would also ensure personalised security settings for transaction as per user’s requirement, he said.

The DG said the authority had planned to install around 500 bill machines in a year and it already had installed 35 units in Karachi and six in Islamabad.

By June 2006, he said 70 more units would be installed in Karachi, 45 in Lahore, 46 in Islamabad, 25 in Multan, 25 in Sargodha, 10 in Sukkur, 10 in Quetta and 15 in Peshawar.

It also planned to install the units in tehsils as well by the end of this year, he said.