Amaravati, Oct 29 (IANS): Construction of 4,530 digital libraries in Andhra Pradesh, will be completed by January, and will be operational by April 2022. At the meeting held on Friday to review the progress of the YSR Digital Libraries program in the state, officials informed chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy that the first phase of the project would be ready in the next two months.

Andhra Pradesh has embarked on an ambitious digital empowerment program to enable the work from home (WFH) concept from the nook and corner of the state. A total of 12,979 digital libraries are being set-up across the state in three phases.

Stating that the digital libraries, including computer equipment, of phase-1 will be made available by Ugadi festival which is the Telugu New Year celebrated in April and directed the officials to prepare an action plan to complete phase 2 work by December 2022, and phase 3 work by June 2023. He instructed officials to deploy the latest technologies and ensure uninterrupted bandwidth internet is provided to every village digital library.

In the meeting on Friday, the district collectors of Anantapur, Chittoor, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts have been asked to focus on construction of digital libraries in their respective districts. The facilities at these libraries should facilitate work from home capabilities, and help the youth prepare for competitive examinations, the chief minister observed. He instructed the officials to focus and ensure proper maintenance of the libraries.

Industries, commerce and IT minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy, chief secretary Sameer Sharma, panchayati raj and rural development principal secretary Gopala Krishna Dwivedi, were among those who attended the review meeting.