The aim of the survey is to map 75 percent of India's geography, coming up to 2.4 million sq km of the overall 3.2 million sq km.
The Survey of India (SoI), the country's oldest scientific department, will be using drones to map the country for the first time in its history, The Hindu has reported.
Officials involved with the project told the newspaper that using drones will provide them with unprecedented details, apart from helping the organisation in creating high resolution maps of land in villages. This, according to the officials, will help in digitalisation of land titles in villages.
According to the report, the best SoI maps have a resolution of 1: 250000 currently. This means that 1 cm on the map represents 2500 cm on the ground, according to the report.
The maps created with the help of drones, the report states, will have a 1:500 resolution, meaning 1 cm will represent 500 cm on the ground.
"We are aiming to provide good high-resolution foundation maps," the Director-General of SoI, Gireesh Kumar, told the newspaper.
Kumar said while they have used aerial photography— conducted by taking pictures from planes— before, that exercise is expensive and has its limitations.
"This is the right time to deploy drones," he said.
According to the report, the aim of the survey is to map 75 percent of India's geography, coming up to 2.4 million sq km of the overall 3.2 million sq km. The mapping of forests, hills and deserts is likely to be left out. The officials hope to complete the exercise within the next two years.
The report states that the organisation is planning to procure about 300 drones for the exercise, out of which 30 have already been sourced. Every square kilometre which is mapped by drones will be encapsulated in pictures.
According to the report, the making of the map will cost between Rs 400-500 crore.
The report states that the exercise will help residents get property cards and proper legal titles to their lands. "This is unprecedented in the history of independent India and we’ve already executed a project in Maharashtra," Kumar said.Get access to India's fastest growing financial subscriptions service Moneycontrol Pro for as little as Rs 599 for first year. Use the code "GETPRO". Moneycontrol Pro offers you all the information you need for wealth creation including actionable investment ideas, independent research and insights & analysis For more information, check out the Moneycontrol website or mobile app.
