Largest ever tender for laptops, projectors floated in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 2 (IANS) An e-tender worth Rs 300 crore, billed to be the largest ever in the IT sector in Kerala's history, was floated on Saturday, said an IT official.

The e-tender for 60,250 laptops and 43,750 multimedia projectors was published in the state's eTender portal, said K. Anvar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) -- formerly IT@School Project of the Kerala government.

KITE is the first Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to be funded from the Kerala Infrastructure and Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) established by the Kerala government to support projects worth Rs 50,000 crore in various sectors in the coming five years.

Under the IT project, 4,775 government-aided schools will be covered under a programme where high-speed fibre-based broadband internet would be made available in all classrooms.

This programme is a "holistic integration of components like capacity-building, digital content, connectivity, infrastructure, resource portal and e-Governance", said Sadath.

He said the tender insists on stringent conditions as it has to ensure hassle free support for schools for five years and KITE will establish necessary support mechanisms.

"A common web portal and call centre would also be set up to register complaints. A fine of Rs 100 per day will be levied if the complaints are not addressed. The Technical Committee and Project Management Unit will oversee the whole process," added Sadath.

The deployment of equipment to schools is planned in three phases. In the first phase, 30,000 laptops and 20,000 projectors will be delivered in November-December 2017. The rest will be delivered in the second phase in January-February 2018 and the final phase in April-May 2018.

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