New Delhi: The National Informatics Centre's efforts to computerize customs operations bore fruit when the Union Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated a new custom house building equipped with state-of-the-art Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) service on February 4, 1995. NIC was awarded the project of computerizing the Delhi Customs House, on a turnkey basis, in 1992. NIC has not only designed, developed and implemented the application software, but also procured and installed suitable hardware. NICNET assumes the role of the backbone of the entire gamut of customs related communication. The project has successfully computerized the two main components of customs operations: Processing of Bills of Entry (Imports) and Shipping Bills (Exports). The EDI system installed in the Customs House will assess and process import-export papers and documents cutting down on tedious paperwork. With EDI, the Indian trading community can exchange documents electronically with their counterparts in the rest of the world. Exporters, importers and custom house agents will be able to transmit shipping bills, bills of entry and other related documents over dial-up links to the NICNET EDI server which in turn will forward the documents to the customs computer system for clearance. In his inaugural address the Finance Minister said that it is imperative that businessmen be provided with the latest technology to compete in the international field. He expressed the hope that the introduction of EDI would lead to the dawn of an era of electronic commerce paving the way for simplifying procedures for customs clearance.