Pune and Hyderabad will be the first cities in the country to start computerised fairprice shops. In Pune, the project of digitisation of ration cards for all 1,100 shops will start by March next year, said Apurva Chandra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.

After a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, Chandra said an “expression of interest” will be drawn out for the purpose.

“We have just discussed the project. We were supposed to get the project rolling in August but due to the polls, we postponed the plan. The project will start next year in both Pune and Hyderabad,” he said.

Private companies will be roped in to give an unique identification number that will keep a check on malpractice in fairprice shops. “Earlier we had thought of a pilot project in Pune, but now we have decided to start it for the entire city. The Expression of Interest (EOI) is being drawn out for the companies,” he said.

On his earlier visit to Pune, he had announced that the cards could be also used to get domestic LPG cylinders. He said the smart cards are based on the Unique Identity Number concept for consumers of PDS kerosene and domestic LPG in the country.

The pilot project was to be launched in Pune and the experience and information garnered during the exercise was to be shared with the Unique Identification Number Project to be launched in the country.

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