DDA, MCD, and Survey of India sign MoU for drone surveys to combat land encroachments in Delhi

New Delhi [India], August 30 : In a major step to address the problem of uncertainty in the status of lands belonging to various government agencies and to protect such land from encroachers and prohibit unauthorised constructions in the future, the Delhi Development Authority, on Thursday signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding with Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and Survey of India (SoI) to carry out drone survey to determine current status of land in the National Capital, an official release said.
Lt. Governor and Chairman of DDA, VK Saxena, who had been faced with a lack of concrete knowledge with regards to the status of various government lands in several review meetings chaired by him had been consistently flagging the lack of real ground status and personally monitored the entire development, bringing the 3 agencies together.
In August 2024, VK Saxena chaired two meetings on the issue. This absolute lack of clarity and actual ground status had been flagged by different Courts that had also instructed the land-owning agencies to adopt advanced technological solutions to map the actual status of land in the National Capital and encroachment on government lands.
In the penultimate meeting this month, Lt. Governor was shown the results of a trial run that had been conducted over an area of 50 sq. kms. Saxena had then directed that all senior officers have access to such precise imagery on their monitors in the office. Saxena had underlined that this will enable officers to visualize every drain, road, encroachment and even garbage on the ground and accordingly implement and monitor remedial measures.
According to the release, the Aerial imagery obtained will have diverse uses, that include easy identification, mapping and monitoring of encroachments. Data elevation models will be used to identify vertical encroachments. It will help in getting real-time data on encroachments, thereby prompting authorities to act against encroachments in the nascent stage itself.
The MoU aims to generate geospatial data through survey and mapping activities which will act as a base for the integration of data of DDA, MCD and various other departments in NCT of Delhi including the Revenue Department, Housing Department, Urban Development, PWD, Irrigation Department, Environment Department, Agriculture Department, Forest Department, Disaster Management, etc. to maximize resource utilization and ensure comprehensive coverage of all areas under their respective jurisdictions.
The scope of the work in the MoU includes Data Acquisition, Geo-referencing of existing Cadastral Maps with ORI and Vectorisation, Vectorisation and Linking of Layout Plan (LoP) with geo-referenced vector data of existing cadastral maps, and Creation of Topographic Template.
With the signing of this MoU, it is expected that both DDA and MCD will be able to better identify encroachments, unauthorized constructions, and change detection in their respective jurisdictions which will enable timely decision-making and result in prompt and swift action, thereby helping in the planned development of Delhi as per MPD.
Commissioner (Land Management), DDA, Additional Commissioner (Engg.), MCD and Director, International Boundary Directorate & DSA, Survey of India also signed the MoU in the presence of senior officers of these agencies.