Pilot project in Mumbai soon to monitor illegal constructions using satellite: HC told

The Maharashtra government Friday told the Bombay High Court that it would soon set up a pilot project in any one area of Mumbai to take satellite images to keep an eye on illegal constructions.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told a division bench of Chief Justice N H Patil and Justice N M Jamdar that Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping will be initiated in one area of the metropolis as a pilot project.

GIS is a system designed to capture, store, analyse, manage and present spatial and geographic data.

The court had in September last year, while hearing a petition filed by a society that was declared as illegal later, asked the government if it can use satellite imaging to monitor illegal structures.

The bench was informed by Kumbhakoni that a team of experts in the field has been formed to study the issue and that the government has also consulted an expert from Germany, who was part of the team that set up a similar system in Hyderabad city.

The court, while adjourning the hearing on the petition, sought to know from the civic body commissioner in which area the pilot project could be launched.