17 November 2017, India:
In its push for digitisation, Indian Government is planning to digitally map physical addresses (residential and professional addresses) of citizens.
The Indian Department of Post, which is under Ministry of Communications has launched a pilot project – eLocations aka eLoc – that will accord a six digit alphanumeric digital address for every property for three postal pin code locations.
With this project, the Indian Government aims to further evaluate the idea of easing the address location process, make e-locations (like Google Maps) and then link them to other information like property title, property tax reports, electricity bill, water bill, available utilities etc.
The eLoc pilot project has been permitted for two postal pin codes in Delhi and one in Noida, according to a TOI report.
The onus of carrying out the eLoc pilot project has been given to a private map developing company, MapmyIndia. However, the postal department will do the mediator job in verification of the information related to the linking of physical address with the digital ones.
“The results of the proof of concept may be utilised by the department towards developing a digital address format that would suit the purpose for a national-level project rollout,” says a letter (according to TOI report) signed by additional director-general (mail operations) Abhishek Kumar Singh and sent to MapmyIndia on September 27.
This project will help commuters to search, share and navigate to exact doorstep of the destination far more quickly and easily. The considerable time and money for businesses in the e-commerce and transportation space will also be reduced with the help of this project.
Rakesh Verma, MD at MapmyIndia, said, “eLoc will help travellers and commuters search, share and navigate to a destination’s exact doorstep far more easily and quickly. It will also reduce time, money, fuel wastage and expenses for businesses in the e-commerce, transportation, logistics and field operations domains”.
According to an official of company, many address are difficult to comprehend when read digitally. He said, “For example, an address such as 147, Pocket XX, 2A, Janakpuri can be easily identified online by a digital address such as 8GDTYX. This can be further linked with other associated amenities such as property tax and ownership details, civic amenities etc”.
According to the approval letter (for eLoc) by the DoP (Department of Posts), the objective of the project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a digital addressing system.
The letter said, “The sole ownership of the data/reports or any other documents generated/created in any electronic or physical form, during the course of the proof of concept, shall remain with the department”.
It clearly stops the company from using the information for any commercial purpose.
The company has partnered ISRO and its national satellite image service ‘BHUVAN‘ to provide effective mapping coordinates.
(Image – MapmyIndia)
