Andhra govt awards ₹46cr contract to Genesys to digitize land records

Genesys International Limited, a Mumbai-based geospatial data and mapping services company, announced Tuesday that it has signed a contract worth approximately ₹46 crore with the state government of Andhra Pradesh to digitize 30,000 square kilometers of the state’s land records. Sajid Malik, chairman and managing director of Genesys, confirmed to Mint that work under this contract has already begun, and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The Andhra Pradesh land digitization project will see Genesys offer its imagery data to the state government body, which will use the information to digitize its land ownership records.

To be sure, this is not the very first project of its kind. Malik said that the company has already procured commercial contracts from the state governments of Maharashtra and Rajasthan for “3D cities mapping” of Mumbai and Jaipur. While the Mumbai project, conducted under the city’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is presently underway, the Jaipur city mapping project is nearing completion at the moment.

The 3D cities mapping project by Genesys involves creating high precision aerial imagery of cities, which are then sourced to various state governments and commercial bodies for respective usage. Malik affirmed that the mapping process involves aircrafts installed with high precision sensors to capture high resolution imagery of the land, as well as leased satellite imagery data from operators that include US-based Maxar Technologies and Boeing, as well as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) — depending on the cost of procuring the data for each project.

Genesys, along with Tech Mahindra, are also suppliers of aerial street data to mapping and search giant Google, which introduced Street View in Google Maps in India on July 27. On September 28, the company also announced a partnership with US-based infrastructure software services firm Bentley Systems to develop its 3D mapping product.

To be sure, Genesys is not the only firm working to offer more immersive 3D mapping services in the country. On July 27, the same day as Google’s unveiling of Street View, homegrown firm MapmyIndia also unveiled ‘Mappls’, a pan-India, 360-degree street view imagery mode with immersive 3D maps.

Genesys’ Malik affirmed that the union government’s liberalized geospatial policy has aided commercial product development in geo-mapping, which has helped firms to offer their services to government bodies and commercial companies alike, in India.