Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Corporation takes up property tax mapping

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The property taxation system in the City Corporation is all set to go hi-tech. A pilot project for property tax mapping is to be launched in the Medical College ward on Tuesday.

The digital maps prepared under the project are expected to make tax assessment and collection simpler and more transparent for the Corporation. Periodic tax re-assessment will also be made easier. The project uses satellite images with GIS (Geographical Information System) technology and GPS (Global Positioning System) to create the maps.

The pilot project will take off with a model survey in the Medical College ward. Special squads equipped with printed forms will fan out across the ward to collect data from houses and institutions. The data generated by the field survey will be integrated with the maps to create a database of all the houses in the city.

A press note issued by Mayor C. Jayan Babu on Monday said the ultimate objective of the exercise was to create a digital urban spatial information system with a set of decision- support tools designed for various applications.

He appealed to house owners, families, residents associations, traders, social, political and voluntary organisations and neighbourhood groups to cooperate with the survey.

The mapping programme is part of a State-wide project covering the five municipal corporations. It has been taken up under the ADB-assisted Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP). Ten lakh properties are to be mapped in the five cities.

The Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) has already prepared base maps for the project cities. Based on satellite images, the maps feature geographical and urban land use data. High-resolution data from the QuickBird remote sensing satellite was procured through the National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad.

A technical support unit comprising GIS experts has been established at the KSUDP headquarters here for the mapping programme. The unit is responsible for processing remote sensing data, ground validation and utilisation of GIS and GPS technologies.

In the next phase of the project, the GIS maps will be extended to cover water supply and sewer systems, garbage collection, streetlight network, public roads and other infrastructure facilities.

The digital maps will play a major role in urban management in future. Long-term goals include city planning and development, transportation and traffic management, planning and development of civic amenities, commercial licensing and managing utilities.

The Union Government has announced plans to create a National Urban Information System for better management of taxes and physical assets and improved service delivery by local bodies.

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