70 ports in the country to be linked electronically

Mumbai: The government will electronically connect 70 ports in the country by end of 2010, for helping out exporters to reduce transaction costs.

The Commerce Ministry is promoting the use of electronic systems with initiatives like EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) ports, electronic message exchange between Customs and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

Presently DGFT has linked 34 ports and locations with e-trade.

The Commerce Ministry has also awarded a 10-year e-governance contract to Infosys to develop an e-business portal, which will give businessmen easy access to government information.

The project, initially to be implemented in five states including Maharashtra, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, would be rolled out pan-India in the next five years.

By 2015, the entire country will be covered through e-business.The project aims to create a customer-centric environment and providing the business community speedy access to information and services.