Geospatial tech to speed up Bihar projects

Patna: State chief secretary Pratyaya Amrit on Tuesday met T P Singh, director general of the Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), to discuss the effective use of geospatial technical support in Bihar under the Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti portal.

Dr Pratima, secretary of the department of science, technology and technical education, was also present at the meeting. Detailed discussions focused on the use of geospatial technology support, inter-departmental coordination and implementation in Bihar through the PM Gati Shakti portal in collaboration with BISAG-N.


The meeting reviewed the current status and way forward for using geospatial data, digital tools and analytics in Bihar through the PM Gati Shakti portal. The chief secretary underlined that issues such as land availability, alignment, drainage, flood-prone areas and forest areas often arise at an early stage during the planning and implementation of infrastructure projects in Bihar, and said the planned use of geospatial technology could prove particularly useful for the state.

In this context, the secretary of the department of science, technology and technical education discussed the coordination established so far between BISAG-N and Bihar Remote Sensing Applications Center (BIRSAC), the work being done with various departments, and the practical aspects of institutional use of geospatial services. She also underlined that continuous efforts were being made to institutionalise timely coordination and field-level feedback between departments for the effective use of digital tools and dashboards developed in collaboration with BISAG-N.

The chief secretary reiterated that if departments ensured the use of geospatial inputs at the planning stage itself, it would be possible to identify potential bottlenecks in projects in time and avoid unnecessary delays in the implementation of works.

It may be recalled that on Jan 14, a meeting was held at BIRSAC in Patna, chaired by the chief secretary. At that meeting, clear guidelines were issued to all departments regarding the institutional use of geospatial platforms under the Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti (PM Gati Shakti). It was decided that geospatial auditing and technical approval would be mandatory before preparing DPRs for projects costing more than Rs 50 crore. The meeting also agreed to strengthen the integrated use of departmental data, timely coordination and regular dialogue with technical institutions.