Bhubaneswar: Working on chief minister Naveen Patnaik's on 3-Ts formula - transparency, technology and team work - the state government on Tuesday launched a website to help people access government files and other required information.

People will now be able to access information without having to take the Right to Information Act route.

The website odisha.data.gov.in, developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), has been launched by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi for this. Odisha is the fourth state in India to run such a website.

Electronics and IT secretary Ashok Kumar Meena said: "People generally seek various information and have to wait for days even for simple government data. Now all this information will be available in the open data sharing of the state government."

Under the RTI, one has to wait 30 days to get information from the government.

Meena said: "The government departments gather a lot of data in course of their functioning and implementation of programmes. These data are very useful not only for governance but also for learning, research and awareness. The portal has been launched with the prime objective of sharing data with people."

All service delivery departments such as the health and family welfare, education and the women and child development have been asked to upload their data on the platform. "We have asked each department to upload at least 10 data faces within the next seven days on the portal and go on adding to that regularly," he said, adding that within the next six months the portal would have lots of useful data in usable formats.

An official said the data uploaded on the portal could be downloaded, transferred digitally and used for developing various apps for further use.

"The Centre has developed an open data licensing system for adding value to government data and developing those for commercial use. We can also benefit from it," said a senior official.

Head of the open government data system of the central government Alaka Mishra said: "With the launch of the portal odisha.data.gov.in, the state has opened up its database for use by the people, journalists, academia and other information users."