A consortium led by technology company Spanco has bagged a Rs 60-crore project for automating the State Transport Department of Punjab.

As part of this five-year arrangement, Spanco and consortium partner SmartChip will assist the State in introducing smartcard-based driving licences, Mr Rajiv Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer of Spanco's e-governance arm, told Business Line .

In addition, all records and ledgers related to transportation in the State will be computerised and made available as an online service, he added. Spanco will be the overall systems integrator responsible for site preparation, installation of hardware/software and networking equipment, installation of smartcard infrastructure, deployment of manpower and overall maintenance of the project.

The front-end applications such as the smartcard itself, enrolment software and the workflow management software will be provided by SmartChip, its Director- Finance, Mr Alok Mukherjee, said.

Punjab's Transportation Department has been toying with the idea of going in for an overall IT overhaul for the last few years. Sources say that in the past, the decision-making process in the State would get stuck at the tendering stage itself.

However, this time around, the Department went ahead and completed the entire procedure, although only two consortia qualified for the final assessment round.

Apart from Spanco, a consortium comprising HCL Infosystems and Hyderabad-based Virgo Infotech, had bid for this project.

The Spanco-led consortium has already received a letter of intent from the Department of Transport, Punjab Government and expects to begin work on the project by mid-May, added Mr Agarwal.

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