KERALA STATE IT MISSION Department of IT Government of Kerala has put out an ad (Express Computer, June 16, 2003) requesting proposals to provide connectivity "to over 500 community technology centres (AkshayaECentres) in Malappuram district, Kerala".

It says:

As part of Kerala's ambitious e-literacy campaign, Akshaya e Centres are being set up throughout Kerala. These centres will initially provide e-literacy to one member from every household and eventually act as ICT Dissemination notes and IT Enabled Service Delivery points in every village.

All Akshaya e Centres need to have quality internet connectivity and will have to be networked with a centralised operating centre. Implementation of the first phase of the project is now on in Malappuram District. The second phase involves setting up of over 6,000 Akshaya e Centres in all the district of the State, which is expected to be over by December 2004.

Kerala State IT Mission, the nodal agency of the Department of IT, Government of Kerala invites proposals from connectivity providers with similar project experience to provide connectivity to over 500 Akshaya e Centres in Malappuram.

Deliverables: Providing 128 Kbps connectivity at each centre to ensure smooth internet services ranging from broising, voice over IP, to video conferencing.

Setting up Network Operating Centre linking Akshaya e Centres for management and monitoring of connectivity, and bandwidth management.

How to apply: Interested service providers should send their proposals as per detailed RFP on or before June 25, 2003 along with service level agreement to be signed with details including guaranteed uptime, bandwidth, response time, maintainence plan etc

For detailed RFP, contact:

Director, Kerala State Information Technology Mission, ICT Campus, Vellayambalam Jn, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala State, India 695033. Tel -91 -471 - 272 6881, 232 4307. Email itmission@vsnl.com Website: www.keralaitmission.org www.akshaya.net