Virtual classrooms begin in Nilje village

Just a few days after the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) declared its plans to set up virtual classrooms as well as virtual hospitals to connect remote villages in the metropolitan region, the first of such plans has already begun. Inhabitants from 10 villages along the Diva-Vasai-Panvel railway line will benefit from this.

Metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said that the speedy implementation of the project was possible as the Valuable group took the responsibility and carried out the connection works at a cost of Rs10 lakh per village.

“We have named this concept community facilitation centre. This is for the first time in India that such an initiative has been executed in such a short period. The company has tied up with Thane municipal council for carrying out the project. MMRDA has been made the special planning authority for 27 villages within MMR,” said Gaikwad.

The authority is also in touch with IT giant Cisco for setting up more such classrooms in MMR. Cisco made a series of presentations after the visit of top MMRDA officials to the World Expo in Shanghai.