Survey Of India To Digitally Map The Country With Drones, AI, And Big Data

According to a senior government official, India has plans to digitally map the entire country with a resolution of up to 10 centimeters, with support from technologies like big data and AI.

This challenging task is assigned to the Survey of India, which is part of the Department of Science and Technology a few months back. The initial plan is for the task to be done in two years. This information was shared by Prof Ashutosh Sharma, the Department's Secretary.

Once the mapping is done, all the data will be made public to local bodies, Gram Panchayats, and citizens, encouraging them to use it in the process of planning and decision making.

The project is now working in the Ganga basin, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Haryana.

He emphasized the importance of having an accurate digital map, saying that such a map would serve as the foundation for everything relating to planning and development like setting up schools, hospitals, or building train tracks.

He also said that the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) did not participate in this project. The reason for this is the mapping based on drones, and they also took curvature into consideration.

He also shared that Survey of India had a reference point set up every 20 km. These points would serve as digital stations with well-established coordinates. With this system in place, even with a smartphone, you could have a map with an accuracy of 10 cm.

He also drew a difference between GPS and a digital map. While GPS can only have an accuracy of a few meters, the map India is making can increase that rate manifold.