Digital mapping of Chennai to be taken up soon

A resolution adopted at the corporation council meet sought finance from the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund to appoint a consultant. The GIS mapping proposal has been doing the rounds since 2008, when Broadway was targeted for the procedure. Later, in 2012, Adyar zone was selected to conduct digital mapping in all its wards.

However, those efforts fell through. But with as many as 17 cities and towns in the state taking to GIS mapping of its wards, Chennai corporation has finally followed suit. “The consultant will help in the mapping of property, impart sufficient training to revenue department staff on how to use the technology and also help with the daily operation of the corporation’s GIS department,” the resolution said.

Mapping property using GIS was put forward as an option by the Fourth Finance Commission. Smaller cities like Tiruchy and Madurai had found reasonable success with it. Now it was the turn of bigger cities to use the latest technology to help improve property tax revenue, the resolution said.

Speaking to DC, officials said with GIS’ help, they would be able to cross-refer if a particular property on a street or in a ward had been assessed or not. “We will be able to assess a property all the way down to even the number of floors in it. It will be similar to looking up a property on Google Earth,” said an official.

Meanwhile, the annexe building of the Chennai corporation may soon be inaugurated. Last year, the council christened the building ‘Amma Maaligai’ in honour of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Also, the council gave its in-principle nod on Monday to demolish all existing building complexes on the campus in a phased manner, except Ripon Buildings and Amma Maaligai.