The Hindu : Satellite image helps Corporation detect property under-declaration

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Satellite image helps Corporation detect property under-declaration

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

CHENNAI, FEB. 21. What hundreds of employees presumably failed to achieve, a satellite image supplemented by field survey has done — detect under-declaration in property tax payments.

The initiative, the first of its kind in Chennai, was implemented by the Corporation in Division 66 at Anna Nagar recently and the results were no less astonishing. It found about one-sixth of nearly 8,000 pieces of property under-declared in terms of the area.

The civic agency is losing revenue for a few lakh square feet, its officials said, pointing out that around 1,300 pieces of property in the ward were under-assessed. Though the exact loss was being worked out, the first estimates were in the range of a few crores of rupees. In many of the cases, the demands would have to be raised with retrospective effect.

Admitting that the discrepancy could have taken place due to deliberate under-declaration of the built up area by property owners or alleged irregularities by assessors, the officials hinted at the Corporation replicating similar exercises using satellite pictures in rest of the city.

The Anna Nagar survey was commissioned by the Revenue department of the civic body after the Town Planning section prepared a list of under-assessed property in the ward. The list was based on a study of a digital satellite image of the locality integrated with information collected through field surveys.

Underscoring the need for commissioning a base map of the city, officials said the focus during the exercise would be on minimising manual interventions in field surveys which gave rise to human error, prejudice and corruption.

Towards this, the Corporation would obtain a digitised satellite map of its limits and superimpose on it three-dimensional satellite images of the city. Information about property and classification of the land collected through the field surveys would then be integrated into the map for evolving a comprehensive base map.

The civic body would shortly engage a consultant to work out the logistics, the nature of data collection, technological necessities and cost of the project.

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority recently convened a meeting of officials from Metrowater, Chennai Telephones, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, Chennai Corporation and Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board to prepare a comprehensive base map for the city across various public utilities.

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