PWD goes digital, brings 100 offices on e-Office platform

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 26

The Public Works Department has brought 100 offices on the e-Office platform, in line with the state government’s digital governance reforms, drawing praise from Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. The Chief Minister said the file movement from the ENC to the Secretary, to the PWD Minister and up to his office is now entirely processed through e-Office. “The internal communication throughout the department has also shifted to official emails, replacing physical correspondence which earlier caused delays. This digital transition has ensured faster disposal of work, complete transparency in file handling, real-time visibility of pending files at any level and easier monitoring and retrieval of official records,” the Chief Minister said.

He further said that while digitisation was generally easier at the top and more challenging at the field level, the PWD had successfully implemented e-Office up to the executive engineer level. “It is the cutting-edge operational tier of the department. It marked a significant administrative reform in alignment with the government’s vision of accountable and technology-driven governance,” he said.

PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh said that the digital transformation was a historic step towards making the department more transparent, efficient and accountable. “The department has achieved the target of digitising the department within the given timeline,” he said.

Secretary (PWD) Dr Abhishek Jain said the digitized offices include the office at the level of Engineer-in-Chief, five Chief Engineer (Zone) offices, 19 Circle offices headed by Superintending Engineers and 58 Division offices headed by Executive Engineers. Under the Electrical Wing, two Circle offices and five Division offices have been brought on e-Office, while under the Mechanical Wing, two Circle offices and four Division offices are now digital.

“In addition, the Chief Architect Office at Shimla, the Architect Offices at Mandi and Dharamsala and one Horticulture Division are also operating on e-Office,” he said.