The Government Information Centre (GIC), accessed by dialing 1919 from anywhere in the island, is still in beta testing stages and is available in English, Sinhalese and Tamil.
The GIC will provide callers with information regarding day to day issues such as procedures of obtaining identity cards, driving licenses, among others, ICTA said in a statement.
For now, the service has the capacity to provide information on 20 government departments, with a second phase to offer callers any required documents by mail or fax, for a fee.
The new government help line is also expected to get around bureaucracy, red tape and bribery in getting information from many state agencies.
The service is free with normal call charges applying. If the information is not available on the database, trained agents are expected to find the information and inform callers in 24 hours, ICTA says.
-LBO Newsdesk-