Kothagudem: In a significant step towards modern urban planning, Paloncha Municipality has launched a digital master plan to guide its development over the next two decades. Using cutting-edge drone cameras and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, the survey—conducted under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0—aims to create an accurate digital blueprint of the town.

Officials inform that the digital master plan that takes into account Paloncha Municipality’s developmental needs will streamline future infrastructure projects, ensuring efficient land use and minimising disputes over government holdings.

Jitesh V Patil, the district collector, reported that recently, a digital survey utilizing was introduced in the municipality. He said that a problem-free master plan is being established to use the newest technology to digitise the data for future generations. Paloncha Municipality is one of several municipalities in the state with a population of 50,000 to 1 lakh that have been chosen to participate in a digital survey under the Central Government’s AMRUT 2.0 programme.

In order to create a base map that would be essential to the town’s development, Patil said, satellites and drones would be used to gather imagery of the surface height, roads, houses, drainage, drinking water pipelines, cell towers, toilets, tanks, markets, Vaikunta Dhamam, and other areas under the municipality.

According to Municipal Commissioner K Sujatha, the current Master Plan was created manually in 2005 and makes it challenging to determine the area’s coordinates. Roads, tanks, green spaces, and nalas could all be easily located using the coordinates of government lands on digital maps.

Burra Gopal, a technical official for the Survey of India, stated that 63 sq km of land inside the municipality boundaries would be surveyed as part of the digital survey. In addition to laying the groundwork for the town’s future growth, he said, the computerised survey sought to avoid conflicts with government holdings.