GIS mapping, E-Governance projects underway in full swing

Aurangabad, Aug 18:

The GIS mapping project, sponsored by the Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL), has been kickstarted with full force in the city. The agency has been shortlisted in May and in the past couple of months, the agency has completed the drone survey in the jurisdiction of Zone Number 9 (100 pc), while the survey in Zone Numbers 8 and 7 is underway.

Earlier, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator Astik Kumar Pandey had held a meeting with the private agencies shortlisted to implement the GIS mapping and e-Governance projects and instructed them to complete the projects, before December 2021, so that the AMC could levy a tax upon properties brought under the ambit of property tax and also revised the old tax if the utility of property has been changed, from the year 2022-23.

According to an expert, " There are nine zones in the AMC and the primary focus of drone survey seems that it is being done in descending order. The present survey is going on in the localities which are mostly developed around or after the new millennium. This is the strong reason why the survey started from Zone Number 9 (comprises of Satara-Deolai and surrounding localities) and now it is going on in Zone 8 and 7. The last phase of the survey will be in zones covering localities of the old city."

According to project engineer (ASCDCL) Syed Faiz Ali, " An area of 170 square kilometres will be surveyed under the project. The GIS data of properties will be digitised in three levels - drone survey (Level 1) , door-to-door survey (Level 2) and high-resolution satellite images from National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad (Level 3) - and the data available with the AMC and the land records department will then be procured and updated."

Ali confirmed the drone survey has started a couple of months ago. So far, the total survey (100 per cent) has been completed in Zone No-9 and partial surveys in the jurisdiction of Zone Numbers 8 and 7. After completing all three levels, the digital database will be tallied with the AMC's data. The changes in the utility of the old properties will be updated, while the tax will be levied on the new finds. The AMC administrator and the chief executive officer (CEO) of ASDCL had instructed the implementing agency to complete the task by December. Accordingly, the AMC has plans to levy new or revised tax from the next financial year 2022-23, said the project engineer.

E-Governance Project

The e-Governance project is also going on in full swing. The project, through a shortlisted private agency, will integrate services rendered by AMC through 30 departments by a modern portal, a citizen app and payment gateways. It will also involve the modernisation of the LAN within AMC offices including setting up one Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFC) in each zone.

" The first phase will focus on providing e-services like issuance of Birth and Death Registration certificates, apart from online payment facility of property tax and water tax. The AMC will have one CFC comprising five counters in each zone, apart from the payment facility through a web portal and mobile app, said Faiz Ali.