Maharashtra land survey: Drones help complete 96 years of workload in just 3 years

Pune: The Land Records department of the state government has managed to finish land survey of 1165 villages in the state in just three years with the help of drones. Survey of a village takes up to 30 days by the ETS machine method which means the manual survey of 1165 villages would have taken at least 96 years to complete.

The decision was taken by the land records department to carry out a land survey with the help of modern technology and speed. It was decided to use drones with the help of Survey of India. The project was carried out on an experimental basis in the village of Sonori in Purandar taluka. After its success, the state government approved drone surveys of all the villages in the state. For this, the Survey of India was provided with funding of Rs 2 crore.

Drones were used for the first time in the state for land surveying. It normally takes 15 to 30 days to count the villages, but due to this facility the process was completed in just one day. The survey of about 1,162 villages in the state has been completed so far through drones. Out of this, the process of making property cards available to the residents of 700 villages has been started. Property cards have already been prepared by surveying the properties in 462 villages through drones. Suggestions and objections were also invited after the survey details were released.

It has been planned to distribute online property cards to the citizens of these villages at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Meanwhile, plans are being prepared to decide on how to issue property cards to the citizens of the remaining 700 villages.

The Land Records Department enlisted the help of all the Deputy Superintendents and Surveyors of the Land Records department in respective districts to expedite the completion of the Rural Survey Project. Therefore, while surveying the villages in one tehsil, all the officers and surveyors from other tehsils were present, which helped in completing the survey in time.

Drone survey benefits

• Maximum time saved when land surveyed by drone
• 15 to 30 days of workload completed in just single day
• More accurate records
• Cost reduction of up to 50 per cent

Benefits to citizens

• Citizens will get property cards after land survey
• Will help resolve land disputes
• It will be easy to get a loan on property
• Citizens will get legal proof of ownership
• Records of grasslands in the village will be updated
• Encroachment on government land will be known
• Government land will be available for infrastructural projects