Odishatv Bureau
New Delhi: Delhi government`s 30 departments and agencies will have to mandatorily use geo-spatial data of overground and underground assets before planning any infrastructure projects, when an ambitious legislation comes into force in the city next month.

The IT Department has already completed a three-year project under which images of all overground and underground utilities like telephone lines, power cables, water and sewer lines and roads have been made available on a single portal to facilitate better urban planning and governance.

The Delhi Assembly in March had passed the Geo-spatial Data Infrastructure (Management, Control, Administration, Security and Safety) Bill which was brought to make sure that each of the 30 selected agencies like PWD, DDA and MCD use the portal to ensure better planning for projects and proper co-ordination among the agencies for their implementation.

Senior officials in Delhi government said the legislation will come into effect from next month. The Act makes utilisation and application of geo-spatial data compulsory and mandatory by all the departments.

Under the project, three-dimensional modelling of the entire range of public utilities including pipelines for water supplies, sewerage systems, telephone and electricity cables-overground and underground, apart from hospitals and a range of other physical structures dedicated to the delivery of different services are being made available.

The common database would be made available to various government departments for design, planning, execution and monitoring of all infrastructure projects.

The availability of underground utilities in digital form would enable the concerned line departments to undertake preventive maintenance programmes as well as locate the fault in the underground utilities with precision.

The digital data recorded so far comprises all roads, routes of Delhi Transport Corporation, Metro network, wards and district boundaries, police stations, underground and over ground utilities.

The officials said the project will provide clear vision for urban planning and easy monitoring of ownership of properties, tenancy, land use, apart from providing greater preparedness for disaster management.

The project was conceived by former Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta.

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