A model mobile information kiosk developed by IIT, Kanpur, for rural areas. Telegraph file picture

Ranchi, March 19: If all goes well, Jharkhand will have 4,500 common service centres ? or information kiosks ? in villages across the state shortly.

The ambitious scheme, funded by the Union government and part of a nationwide programme, is likely to start shaping up from October this year.

The Union government aims at establishing a kiosk in every panchayat. Besides entertainment, the kiosks will provide the villagers with basic information on crops, fertilisers, education, health, soft-term loans and news of local importance. The Union government would provide Rs 48 crore required for implementing the project in the state.

The state government?s role in the project will be limited to providing Internet connection to the kiosks. Sources in the department of information technology, responsible for providing the Net connections, said the work on the project would begin this May and the first kiosk would start functioning by October this year.

?We plan to integrate the village kiosks with block-level offices. Facilities of Jharnet ? a statewide communication network ? has been physically extended to the block-level offices and its full-fledged functioning is expected to start by June this year. We would then extend it to the panchayats. All our IT projects are aimed at providing state or district-level information to the villagers residing in the remotest corner of the state at the click of a button,? the state IT secretary, R.S. Sharma, told The Telegraph.

The project would be implemented in a public-private partnership. The private parties would be asked to install the required system infrastructure in villages with the central funds. The state government would provide 24-hour connectivity and shoulder the responsibility of installing and maintaining the wire network.

?We have invited expressions of interest from private agencies who can manage such centres. They will be allowed to charge villagers affordable sums for using the kiosks. The project would run on a self-sustainable basis. Though the drive is a part of an all India project, it is being implemented for the first time. The state will also use the services of Jharkhand Space Application Centre,? Sharma said.