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New guidelines for release of maps for civilian use

Special Correspondent

They permit release of the open series maps in digital form also

NEW DELHI: Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday launched the much-awaited guidelines for release of open series maps by the Survey of India for civilian use, as a follow-up to the National Map Policy which was approved by the Centre last year and which provides for two series of maps -- one for defence purposes and the other for civilian use.

A key feature of the new guidelines is that it permits release of the open series maps in digital form also. This is expected to facilitate in a big way the undertaking of infrastructure projects like roads and flyovers in different parts of the country and also help the industry and business in activities such as planning of their supply chain management.

"All socio-economic developmental activities, conservation of natural resources, planning for disaster mitigation and infrastructure development require high quality spatial data. Advancements in digital technologies have also now made it possible to use diverse spatial databases in an integrated manner", Mr. Sibal said.

Another feature is that the maps would be made available to the users against a licence. The SIO has identified five categories of users for this purpose: the print and television media; those individuals and companies who wish to acquire the maps for their personal purpose or internal business use; those wish to reproduce the maps for commercial purpose; those who want to incorporate the maps in their websites; and those business organisations like hotels, restaurants, medical and other marketing firms, who wish to add extra information to the maps for purposes such as making their supply chain management more effective. The nature of the license and fee would be different for the different user categories.

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