Need of the hour to preserve basic land records, says Minister

March 13, 2024 09:48 pm | Updated 09:48 pm IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The necessity of the times is to preserve basic land information, including settlement records related to land use in the State, ancient survey records and survey implements, intact for future generations, Minister for Revenue K. Rajan has said.

He was speaking after laying the foundation stone for the Survey Museum and the Central Survey Office at a function held at the Survey Directorate here on March 13 (Wednesday).

A large collection of ancient and valuable survey documents and survey equipment was kept at various survey offices in the State. The Survey and Land Records department has already launched a massive project to preserve, introduce and study such records using modern technologies, for which, the Survey Museum and the Central Survey Office are imperative – the construction of which will be completed in a time-bound manner in an area of ​​36,000 square feet, the minister said.

All villages in Kerala are being digitally surveyed with the help of modern survey implements. The aim is to complete the land survey across the State within four years. A digital survey is conducted in a unified manner by providing state-of-the-art survey equipment such as real-time kinetic rover, robotic total station, etc., and operating this equipment within the range of the Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) GPS network.

The resurvey process in the State was started in 1966, but due to the lack of modern technology and the inefficiency of traditional systems, the resurvey process could not be completed even after 56 years. It is against this backdrop that it has been decided to start a digital survey in the state called ‘My Land’ using modern technologies and complete it in a time-bound manner, said the minister.

The total cost of the digital survey project is expected to be ₹858.42 crore. Out of this, ₹438.46 crore has been allocated to the Survey and Land Records department from the Rebuild Kerala Initiative for the first phase of the project.