Bangalore: Soon, people can pay their property tax, lodge a complaint or get information from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), right in their neighbourhood.

E-Pragati kiosks, one of BDA's customer-friendly initiatives, are set to come up at 25 major points in the city, including R.T. Nagar, Banashankari, West of Chord Road and K.R. Road, Systems Manager at the BDA B.G. Satish told The Hindu on Saturday.

This long-spending proposal has taken a step forward to becoming a reality with tenders being called for about three weeks ago for procuring machinery for the kiosks.

At e-Pragati kiosks, people can access BDA-related information, register and check the status of their complaints, find out what stage their applications for sites in BDA layouts are in. People can also download digitised maps, information updates, forms and applications and other material relating to the activities of BDA.

With the new kiosks, people can also pay their property tax. This facility is presently not available at the two existing kiosks at the BDA offices on Kumara Krupa Road and HBR layout.

"Our backend systems such as integration with the available data were not in place then for people to pay property tax. But with the new ones, we will process the tenders after the systems are in place. The kiosks will probably take about two months to be up and functioning," Mr. Satish said.

They will function round the clock. It will act as an extension of the counters at the BDA offices by providing all services that the former provides, he said.

The success of the kiosks it had launched on a pilot basis in April 2005 has encouraged the BDA to set up more e-Pragati kiosks. Currently, the kiosks are largely being used for downloading information and not so much for complaints, said Mr. Satish.

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