Mys city corporation to adopt LiDAR tech to increase tax collection

Mysuru: Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has decided to adopt Light Detection and Ranging technology (LiDAR) to increase property tax collection.LiDAR measures property boundaries with pin-point accuracy, using 3D imaging to map areas, number of floors, land use changes, and waterbodies. This in turn helps ensure exact property tax calculation.
Using drones, MCC surveys properties, which helps identify unauthorised structures and bring them under the tax net. MCC collected Rs 237 crore in property tax from nearly two lakh households and commercial buildings in the current financial year. With the use of LiDAR-based GIS property mapping, this is expected to increase by 30% to Rs 300 crore. Likewiase, water tax collection is set to rise to Rs 90 crore from the current Rs 60 crore. A team of experts from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Calicut, which successfully implemented this technology for tax assessment in cities such as Varanasi and Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, provided a demonstration before MCC officials during their recent visit to the city. Following this, MCC sent a proposal to the state urban development department and the state govt, seeking permission to deploy this technology. Speaking to TOI, MCC commissioner Shaikh Tanveer Asif said once the state govt grants approval for deployment of LiDAR, MCC will float a tender and award the contract to map all its properties. "Even though Varanasi is a small city, it collected a record amount of property and water cess by adopting this technology. This technology helps track missing alterations and violations, including construction of additional floors byond the approved plan," the MCC Commissioner added.