Omer Farooq BBC reporter in Hyderabad

The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has put all its local government services online in an attempt to cut red tape.

The project called SmartGOV will pave the way for online processing of official documents through the different levels of bureaucracy.

Indian bureaucracy is often criticised for long delays in processing important files.

This is believed to be the first project of its kind in India and has been developed jointly by the Andhra Pradesh government and a private firm - Tata Consultancy Services.

Other states interested

The project has taken 15 months to develop, at the cost of nearly $5.5m.

Launching the scheme, Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu said it would help make the administration more efficient, transparent and accountable.

He said the project would make it easier to monitor the progress of an official document.

The technology behind the project will be made available to other Indian states and countries in the region.

Officials said it was ready for implementation in Indian-administered Kashmir and several other states including Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.

Plagued by corruption

The Sri Lankan Government is also keen to implement this project, said officials.

Andhra Pradesh, with a population of 76 million, is often lauded as a model for other states for its implementation of information technology in government departments.

But observers say the state still has a long way to go before electronic governance is put in place.

They say that despite several initiatives to use information technology in the government, the problems of corruption continue to mar the administration.