Govt to digitise land records of Goa’s urban areas

Panaji: State govt has decided to digitise land records of Goa’s urban bodies to ensure accurate and reliable documentation of ownership. Towards this end, a survey under the National Geospatial Knowledge-Based Land Survey of Urban Habitations (NAKSHA) programme will be conducted.

The initiative is expected to empower citizens, improve ease of living, enhance urban planning, and reduce land-related disputes.

State govt, under the NAKSHA project, has invited qualified bidders for the appointment of a consulting agency to establish a state project management unit (SPMU) that will be responsible for the effective and efficient implementation, monitoring, and management of the NAKSHA project, with specific focus on land administration, geospatial technology, GIS, and remote sensing.

The SPMU will be entrusted with the planning and coordination of project activities. “It will ensure project implementation aligns with objectives and timelines. It will also provide technical and administrative support to all stakeholders,” a senior official said. “The unit will be coordinating with relevant stakeholders, including govt bodies, local authorities and other project partners, and monitoring and evaluating the progress of project activities and outcomes.”

The IT-based system for property record administration is expected to foster transparency, efficiency, and support sustainable development.

Survey of India — the technical partner for the NAKSHA programme — will be responsible for conducting aerial surveys and providing orthorectified imagery through third-party vendors to state and Union Territory govts. Orthorectification is a process in remote sensing that corrects distortions in aerial or satellite imagery to create a geometrically accurate, map-like representation.

The states are scheduled to conduct field surveys and ground truthing using orthorectified imagery, ultimately leading to the final publication of urban and semi-urban land records.