The Hindu 21.06.2010
Inclusion of new areas in digital mapping under study
Aloysius Xavier Lopez
CHENNAI: Even as the Chennai Corporation is taking measures on digital mapping of the city to develop a Geographical Information System (GIS), the civic body is considering expanding the initiative to include localities that would be part of the Corporation limits next year.
Officials said that the digital mapping at the scale of 1:1000 and the development of GIS would be a long-drawn-out process and, currently, the focus was on the existing limits.
Survey of India, the mapping authority, has already submitted a chunk of the digitised maps of the city to the Corporation. The Survey of India is likely to pass on the maps of the extended area on the civic body's request.
The area under the Chennai Corporation limits is set to expand to 426 sq km after the merger of a number of local bodies as against 174 sq km now.
The GIS would be used for accurate mapping of properties and service lines of various departments. The project would digitise details of maps pertaining to the new areas, including their boundaries, all streets and properties.
Officials say this would improve delivery of services and address under-assessment of property. In the next stage, the civic body would undertake a field survey of the attributes for road network, properties and other physical features. Officials said that GIS tools would be a boon to the planning agencies.
