Offices of all district superintendents and city police commissionerates to the State police headquarters (DGP's office) here will soon be connected.

A pilot project connecting the District Superintendent of Police's office, an Andhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP) battalion, a city police commissioner's office and a training establishment in the State, is under way and is likely to be functional in six weeks, official sources said.

"Before taking up the scheme on a large scale, we would like to test its efficacy. Reports on the pilot project were quite encouraging," a senior police official said.

Under the network, all information at the district level would be creeded to the State police headquarters and the data could be accessed by the touch of a button.

Besides district SP offices, all APSP battalions, police training establishments, City, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnampolice commissionerates and the intelligence wing offices would be connected to the State headquarters.

Networking all the sub-divisions and circle offices to the DGP's office would be done later in a phased manner.

The Birla Science Centre here has been entrusted with the task of developing software for the project, while the Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC) Limited is providing the hardware. "The Birla Centre officials helped us to evolve a special package for the pilot project almost free of cost," an official said.

Meanwhile, the police department is exploring the idea of having a website on the department's functioning. The services of private software developers have been sought to create the website and the job is likely to be completed in a month.

Almost all the information about the State police, including the number of personnel, official postings, crime records, besides details of notorious criminals and extremists would be on the site. Names of Naxalites of the outlawed Peoples' WarGroup (PWG), their photographs and the rewards announced for them would also be on the site, sources said.

The site would be updated periodically and a special cell set up at the State Crimes Record Bureau (SCRB) for this purpose.

The police are planning to utilise the site to counter the propaganda by civil rights activists against alleged State violence and explain the damage caused to the State due to the Naxalite movement.