Survey of India to train Thai officers in Hyderabad

Following an MoU between Survey of India (SOI) and a Thai agency as part of an agreement between the two countries in 2002, an 'Indo-Thai Geo Spatial Cooperation Programme' will be launched here on February 1.
The launch will take place at the Indian Institute of Surveying and Mapping (IISM) here.
UN Gurjar, additional surveyor general, said that under the 2002 agreement, a Programme of Cooperation (PoC) in the field of science and technology for the period 2012-14 was signed by the two governments which includes mapping on 1:4000 scale of a town in Thailand with expertise from SOI.
Currently, mapping is underway of U Thong town in Supanburi province of Thailand.

The second part of the project concerns strengthening of Geo Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), Thailand, under which SoI will provide training to its officers. The objective is to provide knowhow to GISTDA about processes for large scale mapping, he said.
Seven officers from GISTDA will undergo training for one month here from February 1, he added.

Gurjar said that the institute has so far trained over 30,000 Indiansand 600 foreign nationals.
Recently, SOI did urban mapping of 152 towns in India under the National Urban Information Scheme, he said. The aim was to provide large scale maps of towns, which are required for the preparation of master plan and detailed plans by urban bodies.

This project will be completed by October, 2016, and will cover, among other cities, Adilabad, Dharmavaram, Madnapalle, Nalgonda and Tadipalligudam in Telangana.
SOI is also planning to develop Virtual Reference System which can act as an input for traffic management, etc., he said.