HYDERABAD:With Google denying developers, builders, architects and others free access to its maps, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has approached the Indian Space Research Organisation’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) for satellite images through Bhuvan, the online platform which provides images and map visualisation.
Google, which had been providing free access till now, has decided to stop free service and wants customers to subscribe for the facility by paying the fee.
‘’Discussions are in progress with NRSC authorities and we are hopeful of an early settlement,’’ chief city planner S Devender Reddy said. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is negotiating with Google to purchase the online application but is asked to pay `8 lakh a year, HMDA metropolitan commissioner T Chiranjeevulu said.
To apply online for building permission through Development Permission Management System (DPMS), an applicant needs to upload the proposed building or layout site with coordinate details like longitude and latitude but Google is now denying free access to its maps. This has hit GHMC’s online building permission system.
“As an interim arrangement we would use Google maps by holding discussions with them so that work does not get hampered. Later, GHMC will shift to Bhuvan online platform,” Reddy said.The department of municipal administration had embarked on a mission last year to map all the properties including vacant plots, government properties and lands in urban areas, and geo-tag them.