Kathmandu, February 1 :

The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoEST) is planning to set up a Government Integrated Data Centre (GIDC) for e-governance this year.

The GIDC will be the first of its kind in the country, which will help store and safeguard confidential and vital government data.

The MoEST and the Korean International Cooperation Agency signed an MoU to this effect recently. The KOICA has agreed to provide $2 million for the establishment of the GIDC.

“The GIDC is a bedrock project for the e-governance,” Bimal Pratap Shah, an e-governance consultant for the National Information Technology Centre (NITC), told this daily.

The data centre will provide an e-governance model to central government departments, agencies and local governments. It will help safeguard confidential data of the organisations and will provide backup data if they are destroyed or corrupted.

“If all data are lost during natural calamities, data centre will restore all the lost data,” said Shah. “Due to such data centres, companies were able to resume their work after the destruction of the World Trade Centre in the US in 2001.”

The data centre will consist of two components — a Backup Data centre will be established in Singhadurbar and a Disaster Recovery Data Centre will be established out of Kathmandu.