The Hindu : New Delhi News : Map products to benefit tourism, business sectors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 11, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Map products to benefit tourism, business sectors

Special Correspondent

Kapil Sibal releases new Road Atlas developed by Survey of India

NEW ARRIVAL: Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal releasing India Road Atlas in New Delhi on Friday. -- Photo: Anu Pushkarna

NEW DELHI: Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday released three map products, one for use by tourists and motorists, the second for use by the business sector, and the third for school children. They have been developed by the Survey of India under the Ministry's public-private partnership initiative.

The products for tourists and for the business sector have been prepared in collaboration with the maps major Eicher Goodearth. The product for school children has been prepared in collaboration with Aastha Enterprises.

The product for tourists and motorists called India Road Atlas comprises 240 pages with 124 maps covering the whole of India and parts of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan. Packed with tourist and other information, the atlas shows all national highways and major roads with route distances between major towns.

For 18 metropolitan areas and prominent cities including Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Mysore, Agra, Pune and Varanasi and 14 heritage and popular tourist and vacation sites including Mamallapuram, Agra Fort, Hampi, Khajuraho, Jaisalmer, Humayun's Tomb, Fatehpur Sikri, Old Goa, Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta Caves, and Pattadakal in Belgaum district of Karnataka, detailed maps have been included separately. The atlas is priced at Rs. 370.

The product for the business sector called Map Plus Professional is a GIS (Geographical Information System)-based desktop tool offering features like routing and driving directions, landmark search, proximity analysis, and provides flexibility to the users to customise it according to their need.

Priced at Rs. 45,000, it is expected to be of use to a wide range of businesses from couriers and tourist and taxi operators to those involved in product marketing. For couriers, and tourist and taxi operators, for instance, it would be helpful in planning their routes, while for the marketing professionals it would be helpful in fine-tuning their sales strategy as it would provide an opportunity to assess how their products are being sold in different parts of the country at the click of a mouse.

Focus on Delhi, Bangalore

The Map Plus Professional would be of particular interest to those with a focus on Delhi and Bangalore, as it offers detailed in-built digital maps of the two cities to a scale of 1:25,000, apart from an all-India digital map to a scale of 1:1 million. The scale of 1:25,000 means that the maps for Delhi and Bangalore provide information on even lanes and by-lane, let alone main streets.

Maps of other cities soon

Mr. Sibal said that detailed maps of several other cities -- Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkatta and Ahmedabad -- would be provided to the users soon. They would be provided with the updates as and when then they are ready.

The third map product, called Digital School Atlas, is expected to make teaching of geography full of fun.

In the form of a compact disc, the atlas covers major themes like physical relief, communication, agro-related information and geology, which form an important part of school geography curriculum and has selective viewing capabilities with zoom and pan facility that allow for theme-wise viewing.

Priced at Rs. 220, the atlas is to a scale of 1:4.5 million, the same as normally used in a large sized wall-mounted map.

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