Karnataka - Bangalore

BBMP yet to put digital data to effective use

BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) may have spent Rs. 37.8 lakh on the digital mapping of 29 wards in the city. But it is yet to effectively use the digital data for the purposes it was meant for.

That is why the second phase of the project in which the remaining 71 wards will be digitally mapped has been kept in abeyance. When the project was planned three years ago, the idea was to implement the Geographical Information System (GIS) as the core system for municipal services provided to citizens.

It was meant to provide better administration, mobilise revenue, detect unauthorised buildings, tap tax evaders, develop the urban poor community, sanction licenses and building plan approvals and monitor municipal infrastructure.

But except for using GIS in the mapping of properties by the Revenue Department, the other user departments, including Engineering, Health and Horticulture, have hardly tapped the benefits of the project. BBMP sources told The Hindu that Commissioner S. Subramanya has given a month’s deadline to the heads of the departments to start using the information effectively. “What is the purpose of going ahead with the second phase by spending more than Rs. 1lakh on each sq km when the existing information of 29 wards itself is not being used?

That apart, there is another proposal to include 45 more wards carved out of the newly added areas in the second phase. The priority is to use the available data effectively now,” sources said.

The BBMP had spent Rs. 54,000 to map 29 wards in the first phase. “We are in a dilemma whether the second phase should capture all the 15 features of mapping that were included in the first phase,” the sources said.

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