Government rolls out Geographic Information System land bank platform 

NEW DELHI:  Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday launched a long-awaited data bank of India’s vast land resources driven by a highly accurate Geographic Information System (GIS)-based platform. The land bank is expected to provide a broad-based impetus to the real estate sector by compiling and providing a comprehensive record of the country’s land resources. 

According to the government’s official statement, the system is aimed at helping investors get real-time information about the availability of industrial land and resources in any area in the country. As of now, the project has been launched for six states, with the minister stating that he was  confident that other states and union territories will come onboard by December 2020.

Goyal said that this platform was only a prototype and that it would be developed further with inputs from states in order to “make it an effective, transparent mechanism of land identification and procurement”. “IIS portal is a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas/clusters across the states. More than 3,300 industrial parks across 31 States/UTs covering about 475,000 hectare land have been mapped on the System,” the commerce ministry said in a statement.

Separately, speaking at the ASEAN-India Business Council virtual meeting, Goyal said that India-ASEAN trade can reach $300 billion. At present, India’s trade with the 10-member ASEAN, or Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is pegged at around $87 billion. “The two have not been able to harness the full trade potential, for various reasons. Now it is the time to to expand trade, address concerns of all nations and businesses, and resolve the differences,” the minister said.