Crystal Clear MIS

The TWAD or Tamil Nadu Water supply and Drainage Board implements water
supply and drainage / sewerage schemes at a cost of around Rs 1,500 crore every
year for all urban and rural local bodies in Tamil Nadu. To manage this huge
task, the TWADNEST (TWAD board integrated e-governance system) was conceived and
deployed in 2007, jointly by the TWAD Board and NIC Chennai for TWAD Board.
According to A Rajasekhar, manager (EDP), TWAD board, the kind of efforts that
have gone in building a centralized database, establishing the network
infrastructure, improving the hardware and peripherals infrastructure of 114
offices of TWAD Board, development of ERP like application software makes this
project unique in the government sector.

Aqua Benefits

The TWADNEST web application developed for TWAD addressed major functional
areas such as project monitoring, financial accounting, water quality
management, and HR management. A comprehensive database of almost 2 GB covering
all activities of the TWAD has been developed. All the software and hardware for
all the 114 offices have been upgraded. On the hardware front, unlike other
government bodies, TWAD hosts most of its applications in its own data center,
situated at the Marina Beach, Chennai. For connectivity of all the branches,
TWAD had used NIC, BSNL, and TNSWAN as backbone networks. The TWAD Board is the
first organization in the State of Tamil Nadu to make use of the TNSWAN network,
and implementing the ERP level application software.

This backbone offered some additional benefits such as a ready-made platform
video conferencing over IP. Hence, TWAD decided to deploy Tandberg desktop video
solutions in each of the offices. The TWADNEST web application can be accessed
from the TWAD website. With this in place, the government can access MIS data,
where departments can see the overall project status and money spent at a near
real-time basis, and can drill down to the smallest level of data if required.

At the same time, it provides a host of benefits to the customers. The
TWADNEST application is integrated with all the water testing laboratories
across the state. The complete report generation, test selection, and billing
for the labs is done through this system. Citizens can bring samples to these
test labs, and can get it checked for pollutants through experts by paying a
nominal sum. The board also conducts regular tests across the state, which when
completed is reported directly into the centralized database with the location
information ported to a GIS map of that state. Not only are the specialized
groups of the TWAD board given access to CAD/GIS software, but also a visitor
can immediately see the status of the test reports on the quality of water in
different parts of the state.

After deployment of the project in 2007, due to centralized system, data
collection is done by automating the processes at the field offices; and a lot
of periodicals, statutory schedules, daily reports, MIS reports, and board
reports are generated by all the offices online almost instantaneously as and
when required, without the need for any manual compilation. With the
implementation of ICT, productivity has increased by more than 50%, even though
the staff strength decreased to around 700.

Overall, the TWAD Board is the first government agency to implement this G2G
e-governance project of this stature in the state of Tamil Nadu. Now, having
hired external agencies to regularly audit the project, the board has estimated
the life of the TWADNEST to be a minimum of twelve years.

Priya Kekre

priyak@cybermedia.co.in