Gandhinagar: From mapping the Rann of Kutch and Saurashtra coastline to creating digital land records for thousands of villages and supporting major infrastructure projects, Survey of India’s Gujarat directorate is expanding its geospatial mapping activities, building on a legacy that dates back to 1767.The directorate, headquartered in Gandhinagar and responsible for Gujarat, Daman and Diu, has completed mapping of rural habitation areas in 14,866 villages under Centre’s Svamitva scheme. Under Svamitva, village maps are helping establish property ownership rights and enabling rural households to use property documents for accessing institutional credit.It has also established 102 Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) across Gujarat and Daman and Diu, providing real-time positioning services with centimetre-level accuracy to surveyors, engineers, farmers and drone operators. A total of 1,042 users have registered to access the facility.An official statement said the organisation is currently undertaking mapping of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail corridor for the town planning and valuation department. Under AMRUT 2.0, it has begun mapping 55 cities to support the preparation of GIS-based development and master plans, covering urban infrastructure, water supply, sewage networks, and green spaces.Another significant assignment involves the use of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology for Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). The directorate has completed a survey covering 121 sq km at Kakrapar, with preparations underway for an additional 183 sq km in the next phase. Mapping of five cities has also been completed under the Naksha project, aimed at modernising urban land and property records.Quoting regional director Siddhant Sen, the statement said the directorate has developed a network of horizontal and vertical control points across the state, providing the basic geographical reference framework for infrastructure development and engineering projects. “These reference points are used in activities ranging from flood-prone area mapping and dam safety assessments to the construction of roads, bridges and canals,” he said.
