Drones to give real-time info on govt land

Vadodara: Vadodara is on its way to become country’s first district to use drones for surveillance of government land and getting real time information of encroachments on it.
A pilot project – Government Land Digital Surveillance (GLDS) – initiated by Vadodara district collector Shalini Agrawal was launched by state revenue minister Kaushik Patel at professor C C Mehta auditorium on Friday.

The project is not only aimed at surveillance of the widespread government land in the jurisdiction of the district but also get real time status of the government land and whether it is encroachment free or not.

“After re-survey of revenue land using GPS and satellite-based mapping, we already known the latitude and longitude co-ordinates of land. Now, using the same co-ordinates, we will be using drone technology to ascertain real-time status of the government land,” said Agrawal.

Checking the real time status and periodically verifying the status of government land using drone videography and photography, the district administration will ensure that the land remains encroachment free.

Presently, the administration has used drone technology to survey government land at three villages – Gosindra, Hinglot and Kotda.

“We will expand it further to cover all talukas and city areas,” Agarwal said, adding that once the government land bank database is ready, the administration will be able to use the database for future projects.

“Land has become an important resource for development. Once, we have the real-time status and the land bank database, we will be able to identify land where future projects can come up in the district,” said Agrawal, who has kept a target of covering the entire district in the next 12 months.

After digital mapping, the district administration wants to make the database available at every mamlatdar, prant office and collectorate.

GLDS will also reveal the status of government land in ravines and riverbeds. “The entire project is aimed at ensuring that government land is protected and is free from encroachments and drone technology will help us in effective monitoring and supervision of the land by giving us real time picture of land while also being time-efficient,” Agarwal said.