The Hindu         13.07.2012

Survey for creating GIS database begins in all zones

A survey to collect and collate data on the city’s infrastructure and property for creating a Geographic Information System (GIS) database has commenced in all the four zones of the corporation.

The survey, completed in ward 44 in Golden Rock zone after being taken up on a pilot basis, has now been extended to the other 64 wards in the city.

The GIS database will have applications in urban planning and civic services, including monitoring property tax assessment and collection, the drinking water supply and drainage networks. Tata Consultancy Services has been entrusted with the task of developing the GIS.

The city’s infrastructure such as buildings, roads, water distribution network, hospitals, educational institutions, bus stands, transport routes, parks, and playgrounds are being mapped. The project has been taken up under World Bank-funded Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project-III.

Tiruchi is one of the five urban local bodies identified in the State for land-based digital mapping with the help of satellite images.

Coimbatore and Madurai Corporation and Gobichettipalayam and Rajapalayam municipality are the other four urban local bodies that are being covered under the project.

According to corporation officials, a base map has already been created based on satellite images.

Currently a survey is on to enumerate details of the public infrastructure and private property to be uploaded to the system.

Corporation Commissioner V.P.Thandapani, who inaugurated the exercise at ward 30 in Golden Rock zone on Monday, told The Hindu that about 1.80 lakh property in the city would have to be covered under the survey and the corporation has deployed its bill collectors to work along with the TCS field staff to carry out the survey.

“The TCS has about 80 staff and we have increased the number of teams with our staff. We hope to complete the project by November 30,” Mr.Thandapani said.

Meanwhile, the survey has triggered apprehensions among a section of residents in the wards that the move was a precursor for a property tax revision.

Enumerators collect data on the name of the owner or tenant of the property, its usage, area measurements, electricity service connections and other details.

This, say some officials, results in the residents not extending their full cooperation to the enumerators visiting them.

The reluctance is pronounced among residents in wards which were formerly under other local bodies such as town panchayats and panchayats, a corporation official said.

Mr.Thandapani, however, clarified that the survey was not intended to carry out any immediate revision of property tax.

Though the database would form the basis for the future property tax revisions, carried out once every five years, cases of under-assessment are not being targeted for revision now.

However, property which have not been assessed for property tax may be assessed based on the survey.