LAHORE, June 17: The Punjab Information Technology Department is all set to provide an efficient automatic link with all administrative departments of the provincial government , computerize the land revenue record and provision of online services to people in the province.

The government has allocated Rs366 million for ongoing projects and new initiatives during 2004-05 financial year against current year's allocation of Rs230 million. The next fiscal year budget allocation is 59 per cent higher than the current year's.

The IT department had initiated 11 projects during the current financial year which are supposed to be completed during this fiscal year with a total cost of Rs354.951 million.

While it will initiate five new projects having a total projected cost of Rs3.969 billion but with initial allocation of Rs68.5 million for the next fiscal year.

The ongoing 11 IT department projects are: motor transport management system (Rs106.717 million), Lahore Wide Area Network (Rs42.936 million), Punjab Intranet (Rs95.495 million), automation of Quaid-i-Azam Library (Rs14.126 million), Punjab Portal (Rs19.615 million), computerization of registration deeds in Sialkot (Rs5.966 million), computerization of arms licences (Rs5.790 million), Prison Management Information System (Rs15.947 million), provision of bandwidth and ISP services to the Punjab government departments in Lahore (Rs19.459 million), computerization of communication and works department (Rs18.80 million), and computerization of Local Government and Rural Development Department (Rs10.10 million).

The IT department's new initiatives and their initial budget allocations are: procurement of software for Punjab Land Record Management Information System (Rs28 million), computerization of land revenue records in Gujrat district (Rs15 million), computerization of land revenue records in Rahim Yar Khan district (Rs15 million), Punjab Land Record Management Information System to be assisted by World Bank (Rs0.5 million), and computerization of food department (Rs10 million).