Swamitva drone data likely to improve civic amenities in rural areas

Centre plans pilots in seven Varanasi villages, conducts hackathon to make best use of drone survey data for Swamitva

The government is planning to maximise the benefits of the drone survey data collected for the Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Area (Swamitva) scheme that guarantees legal property identities (IDs) for unregistered rural homes.

 

Sources said drone surveys of 327,000 villages of the targeted 340,000 have generated enormous amounts of high quality and high resolution granular data. This could now be used for improving civic amenities in rural areas, such as drainage systems, roads, sewage lines and electricity poles, among others.

 

Property ID cards, which is the last stage of the whole process under the Swamitva scheme, have been delivered to 150,000 villages.

 

The whole process of preparation of Swamitva cards starts with drone surveys of villages. It then passes through multiple layers of verification, map preparation, and physical checking before the final cards are delivered.

 

The drone survey, according to senior officials, has delivered data in the resolution of 1:500, which is similar to Google Earth Pro but much more accurate.

 

The drones have taken 3D readings of villages up to 5 centimetres accuracy in length and 20 centimetres accuracy in height.

 

“In fact, now we know which house in those 327,000 villages has a kuccha roof, what kind of kuccha roof it has and whether that roof is suitable for installation of solar panels,” a senior official said.

 

He said to make best use of the drone data, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj recently organised a hackathon which saw participation by teams from leading institutions and organisations in India.

 

The teams presented ideas that included using the drone point Cloud data to develop digital terrain models in order to analyse water flow patterns. It would also identify water logging hotspots and design an optimum drainage system.

 

That apart, the ministry is also planning to conduct a pilot across seven villages in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh to develop a planned drainage network based on the available terrain maps.

 

The vendor agencies conducting the Proof of Concept will be provided with high-resolution geospatial and hydro meteorological datasets.

 

These include Svamitva scheme drone-based point Cloud data for terrain and elevation modelling, orthomosaic imagery for accurate surface feature interpretation and rainfall data to assess precipitation patterns.

 

Based on the integrated analysis of terrain, land use and rainfall characteristics, a village-level drainage network will be proposed and potential pond locations identified.

 

Further, to validate geospatial analysis and proposed designs, field visits and manual surveys will be conducted.

 

Officials said the pilot will show how Svamitva scheme’s drone-based geospatial data, hydrological modelling and field validation can be effectively integrated. This would support scientific drainage and other plans right at the village level.

 

The villages selected for this pilot are Poore, Kuruhua, Jayapur, Nagepur, Bariyar, Parampur and Khakhariya of Varanasi district.

 

Pointers

• Drone survey of almost 3.27 lakh villages done under Swamitva scheme
• Targeted survey is of around 3.7 lakh villages
• Proper Swamitva cards distributed in around 1.5 lakh villages
• Centre hopes to complete distribution of property ownership cards to all 3.7 lakh villages by July- August 2026.