Delhi Development Authority to use satellite images to mark boundaries of unauthorised colonies

NEW DELHI: With the Union cabinet on Wednesday approving a proposal to grant ownership rights to residents of unauthorised colonies in the city, the process will now begin with delineation of boundaries of these colonies, which will be carried out by Delhi Development Authority.

“We have started receiving satellite images on which the boundaries will be marked and expect the entire process to be completed in three months,” a DDA official said.

The official said the satellite images have been sourced by Survey of India from Indian Space Research Organisation. “We also plan to carry out a drone survey of these colonies, though that is not a precondition. Currently, our focus is on marking the boundaries on satellite images and subsequently, carry out a drone survey,” he said.

The exercise to determine the boundaries has been going for almost a decade. During the earlier Congress government, the urban development department had asked the residents’ welfare associations to submit the layout of the colonies that had applied for regularisation. The maps were to be cross-verified by Delhi government with the satellite images. The work, however, could not be completed.

It was after the Supreme Court directed the Aam Aadmi Party government in 2017 to carry out the survey in a timebound manner and complete the process by September 2019, that the urban development department swung into action and started the survey through the total station machine method. The survey, however, failed to accurately demarcate the boundaries of these colonies.

Delhi government then decided to use drones and even carried out a sample survey in a south Delhi colony. It, however, hadn’t taken it forward due to lack of domain knowledge.