Panaji: Three urban areas from Goa – Corporation of the City of Panaji, Margao municipal council and Cuncolim municipal council – have been identified in Goa for implementation of the central government’s National Geospatial Knowledge-based Land Survey of Urban Habitations (NAKSHA) project.
These three areas are among the 150 urban local bodies identified across the nation for implementation of the pilot project.
The project is designed to create and update accurate documentation of land ownership to help resolve land disputes, streamline property records and enhance urban planning.
The project will be launched on February 18 across 26 states and three Union territories by Union Minister for Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
It is an initiative of the Department of Land Resources under the Union Ministry of Rural Development to modernise urban land records through geospatial technology. The project is fully funded by the Centre, with an estimated cost of Rs 194 crore.
The NAKSHA project integrates cutting-edge geospatial technologies with land record management wherein the Survey of India will serve as the technical partner, which will conduct aerial surveys and provide ortho-rectified imagery through third party vendors.
These precision images will be utilised by the state and Union territory governments for field surveys and ground verification, ultimately leading to the finalisation of urban and semi-urban land records.
As urban land disputes and ambiguous property records have long been a challenge in India, the NAKSHA project aims at providing clarity of ownership and property rights, reducing land-related conflicts, improving ease of living for urban residents, enhancing transparency in land record administration and facilitating sustainable urban development through accurate land mapping.
According to the Union government, the project is in line with the Digital India land record modernisation programme, which has been in operation since 2016-17 and is set to continue until March 2026.