Coimbatore: A month after deploying Urbantree, the new software launched by the State government to provide services like building plan approvals and registration of birth and death for residents, the city corporation has scrapped it temporarily. Frequent server crashes were so severe that the revenue collection fell drastically, corporation officials said.
The officials had also received numerous complaints from residents about the software. "We used to collect more than Rs 5cr every week during November and December. But, due to the issues in the new software, we were able to collect only Rs 1.5cr this year. Also, we have another 50% of the revenue to be collected this quarter, which is being delayed, due to the software issues. So, we decided to go back to the older system, which was working fine. As a result, we collected Rs 5cr in the last two days alone," a senior corporation official told TOI.
Due to the software issues, birth and death certificates could not be issued for almost a month. "At the ward office in Race Course, about 75 birth certificates were issued every day. Since, the new software was introduced, the number went down to five per day. Public were suffering and we were also helpless," said an official.
Corporation officials said that Urbantree will not be used until the problems are solved and other municipalities and local bodies start using it. "We will switch to the software when it is ready. Currently, our system is working fine and we will continue to use that. Also, we will introduce mobile applications for these services," said a senior official.
Commissioner of municipal administration G Prakash had said that the new software, which brought 29 modules together, will help residents apply for services also using mobile phones. "It will connect all services of the local bodies and can be monitored from Chennai as it has a central server making everything extremely simple," he had said.
The officials had also received numerous complaints from residents about the software. "We used to collect more than Rs 5cr every week during November and December. But, due to the issues in the new software, we were able to collect only Rs 1.5cr this year. Also, we have another 50% of the revenue to be collected this quarter, which is being delayed, due to the software issues. So, we decided to go back to the older system, which was working fine. As a result, we collected Rs 5cr in the last two days alone," a senior corporation official told TOI.
Due to the software issues, birth and death certificates could not be issued for almost a month. "At the ward office in Race Course, about 75 birth certificates were issued every day. Since, the new software was introduced, the number went down to five per day. Public were suffering and we were also helpless," said an official.
Corporation officials said that Urbantree will not be used until the problems are solved and other municipalities and local bodies start using it. "We will switch to the software when it is ready. Currently, our system is working fine and we will continue to use that. Also, we will introduce mobile applications for these services," said a senior official.
Commissioner of municipal administration G Prakash had said that the new software, which brought 29 modules together, will help residents apply for services also using mobile phones. "It will connect all services of the local bodies and can be monitored from Chennai as it has a central server making everything extremely simple," he had said.
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