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Digital drive pits AP against NRSA

George Iype in Hyderabad

A massive data collection programme launched by Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu to digitise every habitation across the length and breadth of Andhra Pradesh has pitted the state government against the National Remote Sensing Agency.

NRSA has accused the Naidu government of engaging the services of the United States-based Space Imaging Company, the manufacturer of the Ikonos satellites, by ignoring its competence in rendering a similar service.

The state government, however, argues that the services of a foreign satellite have been hired because only Ikonos could provide high-resolution pictures of urban conglomerates, especially in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The digital database programme, which the government has commissioned and termed as the Andhra Pradesh Development Monitoring System, is Naidu's brainchild to judiciously deploy funds for the development of the state through micro-level planning.

When completed, the digitised data will show the boundaries of the state's 23 districts, 1,099 mandals, 116 municipalities, 28,245 villages, 21,943 panchayats, 67,505 habitations, 3,393 municipal wards and a road map of 2,76,000 kilometres.

It will also include data relating to human development indicators such as literacy, health care, child labour, elderly persons in the family, shelters, family planning, infant and maternity mortality rates, the number of disabled, handicapped and slum-dwellers, availability of drainage system, drinking water, sanitation and land ownership.

Based on this data, the Naidu government would develop a Human Development Index in the state.

While the APDMS will enable the chief minister, all his ministers, district collectors, secretaries and officials to access information round the lock at the click of a mouse, the superimposed images of water beds, land use and forestry will result in drafting the best form of development plans for the state.

In fact, towards this end, the government has engaged the Hyderabad-based NRSA to procure high resolution aerial photographs to a large extent. But the government has at the same time awarded the satellite imaging work to the US-based company insisting that the NRSA is not competent enough to handle the job.

Thus Ikonos -- hired for an expensive, undisclosed amount -- will identify all the roads, localities, houses, drainage, drinking water system and other urban facilities in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.

AP's Planning Secretary A K Parida, who is in charge of the programme, says the decision to engage Ikonos was taken after it was conveyed to the government that NRSA was not technically equipped to provide urban images of 1 m resolution.

Moreover, he claimed, the NRSA's services are "slow". "For instance, the state government had asked NRSA to conduct an aerial survey of Hyderabad and Secunderabad as we planned to take up forestry projects in the open spaces. But the government is yet to receive the data from NRSA," Parida told rediff.com.

"The APDMS is an information technology mechanism to ensure efficient administration and precise micro-level planning. We will put up the digitised data on the Internet for the general public also," the planning secretary said adding that since it is a development project, the government could not wait any longer for NRSA to acquire the technical ability for high quality satellite images.

But NRSA Director D P Rao said that the Naidu government awarded the satellite contract to Ikonos without contacting the Indian remote sensing agency.

"We do not want to question the government's right to award satellite contracts," Rao said stating that India at present does not have the facility for 1 m resolution.

"But what we feel is that aerial photographs are equally superior in terms of accuracy and high clarity compared to satellite images. Therefore, we could have done the same job much cheaper," the NRSA director said.

NRSA officials said that conducting the satellite survey through Ikonos is an expensive proposition. "The Naidu government wants to impress the US with all kinds of expensive projects in the name of development," an NRSA official commented.

He said since the Andhra Pradesh government does not have the high-tech equipment to analyse the satellite images provided by Ikonos, the American agency will again be roped in for the purpose. "It will undoubtedly lead to the monopoly of the American satellite services as other state governments are also planning similar projects with Ikonos," the official added.

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