Cuttack, Sept. 1: The municipal corporation has started computerised booking and billing facility for two major public utilities - Saheed Bhavan (auditorium) and the kalyan mandap at Choudhry Bazar.

Earlier, the bookings and issuance of receipts were done manually and this provided scope for some employees of the civic body to misappropriate funds. The new technology will help eliminate financial irregularities.

The special audit team had detected alleged misappropriation to the tune of Rs 2 crore in the revenue generated from the public utilities in the past five years.

Now all the data generated through computerised booking system will automatically be stored in a server.

The booking details and the income generated will become available to senior officials.

The computerised system has also paved way for the online booking system that is likely to be introduced in October.

Though the online booking system was earlier scheduled to be introduced in July, it had to be postponed for technical reasons.

"There will be no manual booking and the customers will be provided with a computer-generated receipt for the booking made for the two public utilities," said Cuttack Municipal Corporation commissioner Gyana Das.

The National Informatics Centre is providing the software and technical assistance for introducing the online system.

The computerised booking facility was inaugurated on the occasion of the Local Self government Day yesterday.

The corporation commissioner said that once the e-booking system was introduced, people would be able to know about the availability of Saheed Bhavan and the kalyan mandap, book the utilities and make payment online.

People will have to provide scanned documents of an identity proof such as a voter ID card or PAN card to making the bookings.

The online booking has a special provision in which one individual cannot book the public utilities more than four times a year.

The move is aimed at eliminating middlemen.

A corporation official said the online booking system would be crucial in maintaining transparency and make it easier for people to book the public utilities.

There are also plans to make the online booking facility available for other public utilities such as the Town Hall and the proposed six other kalyan mandaps that would be built across the city.