Centre sanctions funds for second phase of digital library project

KOLKATA: The Ministry of Human Resources Development has sanctioned the second phase of NDL project which is aimed at building a virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility.

IIT Kharagpur was entrusted by the ministry to initiate a pilot project in April 2015 after which funds of Rs 48.75 crore for the second phase was sanctioned recently, officials said.

The second phase will start from January next year under which they plan to build a user base of 10 lakh, content base of 200 lakh materials and 1000 participating institutions.

"A full-blown NDL will pave the way to providing easy access of quality educational e-contents to various learners with different backgrounds, expectations and languages for all citizens of the country," IIT-Kgp director P P Chakrabarti said.

NDL officials said they will also build a mobile app, audio books, vernacular content and a user interface for differently-abled users.

Students of class X and XII will be able to find content related to various subjects.

Currently, the NDL hosts 14.6 lakh contents and 2.3 lakh users from participating 230 institutions.

Another about 50 lakh contents from publishers are in different stages of processing and going to be included by March 2017.

The first phase will be completed by March 2018 and will overlap with the beginning of the second phase.