Building the infra for accurate map making

The concluding part of the series on Svamitva looks at CORS, a network of GPS-enabled stations for creating maps in quick time

- SANJEEB MUKHERJEE

One major infrastructure backbone that Svamitva, the government's property card scheme for rural India, is creating are the Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS), a network of GPS-enabled stations to get the coordinates for accurate map-making.

Just like mobile towers in remote and not-so-remote locations, these stations will help develop a grid based on which maps can be quickly drawn to the lowest of scale with very little effort and cost. CORS has speeded up the process of making error-free maps for Svamitva, vital for swift generation of property cards.

Map-making has always been an integral part of any nation's development journey. As former Surveyor General of India, Lt General Girish Kumar, VSM, (Retd), points out, "Maps are nothing but an accurate representation of the ground on paper and the more accurate it is, the more representative it is," says Kumar.

The British carried out what is now called 'The Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) of India' in 1802. Among the many accomplishments of the survey were the demarcation of the British territories in the subcontinent and the measurement of the height of the Himalayan peaks Everest, K2, and Kanchenjunga.