Ashwini M Sripad By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Karnataka, which has been in the forefront of information technology-driven initiatives, is moving towards complete digitisation of all its assets and natural resources. This is said to be the first of its kind initiative in the country and has been applauded by the Union government.



So, if you are planning to buy a residential plot and are concerned about pending litigation, or if there is a medical emergency at a far-off place and you want information on the nearest medical care centre, all the information will be just a click away.



The state government has taken up the ambitious project to digitise every minute detail, including properties, irrespective of geographical boundaries. For this, the Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology has developed an integrated portal — the Karnataka Geographical Information System (K-GIS). At present, the first version of the service is available only to government departments and will be extended to the public in the coming days.



Under the K-GIS project, the Department of IT and BT has so far mapped over four lakh assets, both private and public. Sources said work has been going on since April 2016. The three-year project, costing `100 crore, is fully funded by the state government. “We have mapped over four lakh assets from primary health centres to multi-speciality hospitals, blood banks, schools, colleges, anganwadi centres, lakes, roads, drains, streetlights, forests and buffer zones and others,” the source said.



The mapping has been done in layers as per geography and data provided by the departments concerned. “As on date, we have 120 layers.

Every department will have its own layer. For instance, the Urban Development Department will have information on Gram Panchayaths to Mahanagara Palike, while the Forest Department will have information on forests, buffer zones, forest divisions, etc.

The Agriculture Department will have data on texture and quality of soil that varies from place to place,’’ an official said.



By clicking on the agriculture layer, one will get to know if a particular area is drought hit, what seeds can be sown, how much water is required and other details. In the coming days, more assets and more layers will be added. All this information will also be made available on a mobile application, the official said.



Principal Secretary to the IT-BT Department, Gaurav Gupta, said based on the existing GIS maps, the department is creating different layers that will cater to all government departments. Currently, for any work involving two or more departments, they depend on each other for data sharing. Data could be anything —road laying, pipelines, water available in a lake/river, buffer zone of forest area, ground water availability, etc.

What is K-GIS

Based on GIS, local properties and services are mapped

4 lakh

Over 4 lakh assets including PHCs to multi-speciality hospitals, blood banks, schools, colleges, anganwadis, buffer zones etc., are mapped.Three-year project started in April 2016 and Version 1 is completed

D100 croreCost of the project is `100 crore and is fully funded by the state government