67 in all,but only 20% utilisation of civic utility kiosks

The kiosks are open from 8 am to 8 pm and on an average,10 to 15 walk-ins are registered at each kiosk per day. “Not many of us know the location of the nearest kiosk. Further,many of us still find it convenient and reliable to go to the PMC to pay our property tax,” said Ramesh Phadtare.

The PMC spends Rs 14,000 per month on each kiosk making it to a total of Rs 9,38,000 per month on all 67. The kiosks are operated by city-based Vansh Private Limited on a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. From the current three to four transactions that are carried out at the kiosks,the PMC is planning to increase the number to 15-20. “We have already been offering services such payment of MSEB bills,private mobile phone bills,railway reservations,domestic airline bookings and so on at a few kiosks such as the one in Bhavani Peth. We are about to enter into a contract with the PMC and are expecting the services to be offered from all the centres within a week’s time,” said Rohan Dudhedia,operations manager,Vansh Private Limited.

“Implementation of e-governance project of the PMC will make the kiosks more citizen-centric. Providing multiple services such as filing applications,registering complaints and getting feedback will also be possible soon. The motive behind providing these added services is that more and more people should make use of this facility,” said another PMC official.