Soon, single portal for all utilities in Capital

Three-dimensional images of utilities, such as telephone lines, power cables, water and sewer lines and roads will be available

Soon, single portal for all utilities in Capital

Three-dimensional images of utilities, such as telephone lines, power cables, water and sewer lines and roads will be available

Delhi government is all set to implement an ambitious IT project later this month, under which 3D images of all over-ground and underground utilities such as telephone lines, power cables, water and sewer lines and roads will be made available on a single portal to facilitate better urban planning and governance.

The portal is ready for launch after almost three years of rigorous ground work to record high quality digital images of the assets using geospatial technology by the IT department.
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The launch of the project will make Delhi a member of the elite group of cities such as New York, London and Paris, where such kind of three-dimensional mapping of underground and over-ground utilities is available, said a senior official.

30 agencies to help
As many as 30 agencies rendering services of public utility have been brought under the ambit of the project, which is expected to cut red-tapism in getting approval for various infrastructure projects.

"Multiplicity of authorities is a major problem in the city and the portal will help in proper coordination and planning," the official said. The common database would be made available to various government departments for design, planning, execution and monitoring of all infrastructure projects.

The Delhi Assembly, in March, had passed the Geo-spatial Data Infrastructure (Management, Control, Administration, Security and Safety) Bill, which was brought to ensure that each of the selected agencies such as PWD, Urban Development Department, DDA and MCD became a part of the project.

The Act makes utilisation and application of geo-spatial data compulsory and mandatory by all the departments. In order to have proper coordination between all agencies brought under the project, the government has already set up a Regulatory Authority headed by Chief Secretary P K Tripathi.
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The availability of underground utilities in digital form would enable the line departments concerned to undertake preventive maintenance programmes as well as locate the fault in the underground utilities with precision.
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"We have mapped most part of the city using state-of-art technology of 'ground probing radars'. Now we are going to implement the project," said the official.