On Saturday, the foundation stone for a permanent structure for a Geospatial Data Centre of the Survey of India in Chennai was laid in Velachery near the Perungudi MRTS station.
The geospatial data centre, which now functions from an office inside the Guindy Industrial estate, provides information on the mean sea level that is a benchmark for calculating the height for new projects such as dams, roads and bridges. It also provides latitude and longitude coordinates for sites. It has precise topography maps too.
It also has a map sale office where people can buy either printed or digital maps (for technical uses) or in PDF format.
In two years, a Centre for Automotive Research too will come up near the geospatial data centre for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands in Chennai. “Both the buildings will come up at a cost of Rs. 30 crore. We have asked them to construct only what is necessary initially and expand later,” said T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the National Geographic Information System was being put in place so that the data with the Survey of India could reach the common man. Initially, the National GIS would cover five States in the country. Within the first 1.5 years, the country would see the results of the work of the DST, Department of Space and Technology and the Survey of India.
Swarna Subba Rao, Surveyor General of India, G. Sundararajan, Director, Director of International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), M. Dharma Raj, Additional Surveyor General, Southern Zone, R. Siva Kumar, CEO, National Spatial Data Infrastructure and R. Kannan, Special Secretary and Director of Land Records, were present.
