: The city Corporation has several times put forward plans to have a comprehensive land registry to help it in planning various projects. But all such initiatives have remained non-starters, with the civic body still unsure of the land in its possession. This is set to change now with the resource mapping of all 100 wards of the Corporation by the Kerala State Land Use Board (KSLUB).
Over the past few weeks, KSLUB officials have completed the survey of six wards — Kazhakuttam, Chanthavila, Kattayikkonam, Sreekaryam, Cheruvakkal and Ulloor.
“For every area, initially, we compare the latest cadastral map having all the survey numbers with the Google maps. This helps us understand the land use pattern. Since Google maps for each of the past 10 years are available, we can also study the gradual changes in land use over this period. We are also studying the toposheets from the Survey of India, which helps us understand how much paddy lands have been converted. After the map study, we conduct field study of the specific area,” Land Use Commissioner A. Nizamudeen said.
He said such an intensive study of land use has not been done in any civic body in the State. The study in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation is a pilot project.
Waterbodies too
“We are documenting all the waterbodies. This will help us formulate a plan for specific areas when rainwater harvesting projects are implemented by the government. We are also documenting the distribution of crops in each ward. Contrary to popular perception that there is no paddy cultivation in the Corporation area, we found several fields which are still being cultivated,” says Mr. Nizamudeen.
For the city Corporation, the mapping project is crucial as it will aid it in planning for the Smart City project. “Once the mapping is done, we will have an idea about the fallow land owned by the Corporation. In addition to helping us in planning various projects, it will help us in exploring options to widen our organic farming activities. We will also get an idea of the private and public lands in the Corporation area and information on the ownership of specific plots,” said Mayor V.K. Prasanth.
The survey officials have begun work on the next lot of 12 wards. The plan is to finish the work by December this year.
All wards to be covered by December
Unused land to be
utilised for organic farming, new schemes
