8-Dec-2022: Geographic Information Systems
The Ministry has developed web based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications like PARIVESH, e-Green Watch and Van Agni Geo-portal. PARIVESH portal (Pro-Active and Responsive facilitation by Interactive Virtuous and Environmental Single-window Hub) is a single-window integrated environmental management system for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the proponents for seeking Environment, Forest, Wildlife and Coastal Regulation Zone clearances from Central Government. It is a GIS based system and analytics platform that provides information to various stakeholders using Decision Support System functionality.
Further, e-Green Watch portal of the Ministry is an advanced technology based platform designed to facilitate automation, streamlining and effective management of processes related to plantations and other forestry works taken up under CAMPA fund. Forest Survey of India(FSI) carries out analysis of geo-spatial data (polygons) of various plantations uploaded by the State Forest Departments on e-Green Watch portal for accuracy of location, area and year of plantation.
Forest Survey of India has also developed Van Agni Geo-portal to provide user-friendly interactive viewing of the forest fire related data for continuous monitoring and tracking of large forest fires in near real-time basis. Van Agni Geo-portal serves as a single point source for the information related to forest fires in India.
3-Aug-2022: GIS Mapping of Highways
The Ministry has taken initiatives for GIS mapping of the National Highways network on the PM Gati Shakti NMP portal. Total length of NHs in the Country is about 1,41,720 km. So far, NHs length of about 1,41,190 km has been mapped on the PM Gati Shakti NMP Portal. This envisages coordinated and integrated planning, project preparations and implementation, optimization of logistics arrangements and efficient transportation systems.
Entire 7,885 km length of NHs network in the State of Gujarat has been mapped on PM Gati Shakti NMP Portal; out of these, alignments of about 4,503 km length of NHs have been validated so far.
6-Apr-2022: Use of GIS for Projects in Rural Areas
The Ministry of Rural Development is utilizing the Geographic Information System (GIS) for improvement in planning and implementation of projects. GIS planning is being used for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
Under PMGSY-III, more than 7.70 lakh rural facilities such as medical, educational and markets have been geo-tagged. Details of rural roads are available in public domain at https://geosadak-pmgsy.nic.in/opendata. The GIS data created under PMGSY National GIS guideline is not just of rural areas, but serves as a holistic national geo-spatial dataset including urban areas, National Highways, State Highways and Railway tracks, etc. GeoSadak has been developed utilizing fully indigenous GIS data layers and satellite data services.
Under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, assets are created across the country related to water harvesting, drought relief, flood control activities, sanitation. Satellite derived Location based services are being utilized for planning and monitoring of nearly 7-8 million assets annually through the use of mobile-based geo-tagging. Online Geo-spatial maps is available at https://bhuvan-app2.nrsc.gov.in/mgnrega/mgnrega_phase2.php. A web GIS based mechanism for creating geotags for all MGNREGA works across the country is very successful and presently 3 crore assets are geotagged.
Under MGNREGS, 2.56 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) have prepared the GIS based GP plans as on 31st March 2022. Under PMGSY-III, 11537 numbers of sanctioned road proposals (87026.04 km length) have been drawn on the GIS (GeoSadak) platform.
To ensure better transparency in the implementation of the MGNREGS, mobile applications like Area Officers' App and National Mobile Monitoring Software have been developed. The first one enables officers conducting inspection to record the findings of inspection online. The latter enables taking attendance twice a day for every work which has muster roll issued for more than 20 workers at a time. In all the above apps, geo-tagged time stamped photographs are taken which are compared with the GIS coordinates of the site of the relevant work. Similar actions are taken at the time of inspecting PMGSY works.
Assets under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin, Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission are also geo-tagged. In the former, 5 geotagged timestamped photographs are taken, to ensure that the scheme assistance is not misappropriated by diverting the funds elsewhere.
Under the PMGSY, entire District Rural Road Plan (DRRP), Habitation and important socio-economic facilities have been geo-tagged on GIS and are being used for better planning and monitoring of projects. In PMGSY-III, National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA) has prepared a network planning algorithm called Trace Maps which simulates the traffic from habitations to nearby facilities to identify and calculate road usage in rural areas. This information is then used to suggest important routes and major rural links to field engineers to help them with planning. Further, road proposals proposed by states are also scrutinized on a sample basis on GIS along with satellite imagery and other informative layers to see if the roads are meeting PMGSY-III objectives. NRIDA has prepared a Web GIS tool called GeoSADAK which allows for NRIDA, State Rural Road Development Agency (SRRDA) and PIUs to make use of GIS without needing specialized GIS expertise. Programme Implementation Unit can draw the proposals on the tool under their login and SRRDA and NRIDA can verify the alignments before sanction.
9-Jul-2021: GIS Enabled Land Bank gaining popularity
The India Industrial Land Bank (IILB) is a GIS-based portal - a one-stop repository of all industrial infrastructure-related information – connectivity, infra, natural resources & terrain, plot-level information on vacant plots, line of activity, and contact details. Currently, the IILB has approximately 4000 industrial parks mapped across an area of 5.5 lakh hectare of land, serving as a decision support system for investors scouting for land remotely. The system has been integrated with industry-based GIS systems of 17 states to have details on the portal updated on a real-time basis and will achieve pan-India integration by December 2021
A mobile application (wherein login is not required) was launched on Android and iOS stores. Additional features are to be introduced soon. In parallel, the portal has been made more user friendly by allowing users to explore the portal without any login. The design and UI of the portal are being constantly improved for a better user experience
Information on Land bank is also accessible via Homepage of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.. Once we click on Industrial Information System, the page is redirected to https://iis.ncog.gov.in/parks/login1 for detailed accessibility to the investors. Additionally, the information on land bank may also be accessed via Invest India website, under resources tab as India Industrial Land Bank
The website has seen a 30% increase in page views each month since April 2021 and received 55000 page views in June compared to 44136 page views in May 2021 and 30153 page views in April 2021. In previous quarter (Apr – Jun 2021), total users were 13,610 out of which 12,996 were unique users with total page views of approximately 1.3 lakh
Regarding country wise visitors, after India, United States have the maximum number of visitors followed by Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, UAE, Germany, and Indonesia. Demonstration of the IILB portal and mobile application was given at various outreach events to Industry Associations, Singapore Indian High Commission, Indian Embassy of Korea, KOTRA and Malaysian & Korean Investors.