Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Corporation to launch ward-level mapping

T. Nandakumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The city corporation is gearing up to launch a ward-level mapping programme aimed at creating a community database for effective policy-making and resource management. The project is to be taken up under the `Twin City' pact with the London Borough of Newham.

The Sasthamangalam ward has been identified for the pilot project. A detailed survey of all the 2,000 households in the ward will be launched In May. The action plan was finalised here on Thursday at a meeting between Mayor C. Jayan Babu and Ms. Dhanwant Rai, Head of Corporate Research, Newham Council.

Talking to The Hindu , Ms. Rai said the Sasthamangalam ward was identified for the pilot project because of the diverse socio-economic conditions. She explained that the findings of the two-week survey would be used to create a database of all the premises in the ward.

The Information Kerala Mission (IKM) will provide software for the project and equip a core team of volunteers for field survey. It has also drawn up a questionnaire and data collection strategy for the programme.

The director of the All India Institute of Local Self Government, S. Gopinathan, said the survey would equip the corporation with baseline information for poverty alleviation and informed decision-making. The database will later be incorporated into ward-level digitised maps. In the second phase of the mapping project, the physical maps available with the Survey department will be digitised and converted to GIS (Geographical Information System) format. The third phase involves preparation of ward-level maps.

A special software will be utilised to prepare plot-level precision maps showing survey numbers, blocks, plots and sub plots. The last stage of the project involves the preparation of proper scale maps and field verification. Corporation officials say the digitised map would make detection of zonal violations easier and minimise the procedure for issue of building permits.

Newham officials will train their counterparts from Thiruvananthapuram in analytical skills and decision support for the mapping programme. They will provide guidance in preparing reports and handling GIS information. The training is to be backed up by periodic refresher courses. There will be four exchange visits during the course of the project.

The `Twin city' pact is promoted by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF). The Newham Council has committed an assistance of 50,000 pounds to the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation under the agreement. Ms. Rai said the decentralised political system in both the cities could be effectively used to evolve a need-based development strategy. "The partnership will help us learn from each other," she said.

The London Borough has also proposed bilateral promotion of tourism, a `twinning' programme for schools and a teacher exchange scheme.

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