Digital Survey of 1550 village in Kerala A S Issued - upload from James Joseph Adhikarathil

GOVERNMENT OF KERALA
Abstract
Planning and Economic Affairs (RKI) Department- Project Proposal of the Revenue
Department, viz., ‘Digital Resurvey of 1550 villages in the State’- Administrative
Sanction accorded to Phase-1 for an amount of ₹339.438 crore- Orders issued.
PLANNING & ECONOMIC AFFAIRS (RKI) DEPARTMENT
G.O.(Rt)No.364/2021/P&EA Thiruvananthapuram, Dated, 27/08/2021
Read: 1. G.O. (P) No. 16/2018/P&EA dated 09/11/2018.
2. Minutes of the meetings of the RKI- Implementation Committee held on
02/06/2021 and 13/07/2021.
3. Minutes of the 14th
meeting of the High-Level Empowered Committee
(HLEC) held on 05/08/2021.
4. G.O. (Ms)No. 24/2021/P&EA dated 18/08/2021.
ORDER
Out of the 1,666 villages in the State, the resurvey of only 909 villages have been
completed till date. Even this exercise took almost five decades. In 29 villages, fresh
resurvey is progressing, and 728 villages still remain to be surveyed. Except 87 villages,
others were resurveyed in conventional methods, and the records were prepared as
paper maps. These records have defects, inherent errors etc. Since the records are
prepared in hard copies and do not have geo-coordinates, digitization and incorporating
geo-coordinate standards into them were found to be almost impossible. The 2018 and
2019 devastating floods (that affected nearly 40 percent of villages in the state) also
highlighted the challenges of Kerala's resilience and disaster risk management readiness
due to incomplete, inconsistent and institutionally fragmented legal records on land, and
outdated, non-digital cadastral maps.
2. In order to address all these issues, the Revenue Department prepared and submitted a
project report titled ‘Digital Resurvey of 1550 villages in the State’ to the Rebuild
Kerala Initiative (RKI), with the following objectives, viz.,
(i) To complete the Digital Resurvey of 1550 villages by using latest survey
technologies;
File No.RKI1/95/2020-PLGEA

(ii) To integrate the land record service delivery of three main stakeholders
department (survey, revenue and registration);
(iii) To impart training and capacity building of stakeholders departments; and
(iv) To improve technology and IT infrastructure for building a strong framework
of digitally enabled cadastral system.
3. The proposal was considered in detail by the RKI- Implementation Committee (RKI-
IC) in its meetings held on 02/06/2021 and 13/07/2021. Based on the recommendations
made by the RKI-IC, the proposal was placed before the High-Level Empowered
Committee (HLEC) of the RKI, in its meeting held on 05/08/2021, the minutes of
which read as 2nd paper above. The HLEC considered the proposal, and recommended
the same for in-principle approval by the Council of Ministers. The HLEC, further
directed the RKI to issue Administrative Sanction for the First Phase of the project at a
cost of ₹339.438 crore, subject to the approval of the Council of Ministers. The HLEC
also directed the Revenue Department to submit the DPR with revised timelines such
that the completion of the project is achieved in 4 phases, and that, while preparing the
DPR, the Department shall address the concerns and incorporate the suggestions put
forward by the RKI- Implementation Committee in its meetings held on 02/06/2021
and 13/07/2021.
4. Based on the recommendations of the HLEC, in-principle approval by the Council of
Ministers was accorded to the project as per G.O. read as paper 4th
above.
5. In these circumstances, the Government are pleased to accord Administrative
Sanction for the First Phase of the ‘Digital Resurvey of 1550 villages in the State’ at
a cost of ₹339.438 crore, (Rupees Three hundred and Thirty nine crore Forty
three lakh Eighty thousand only) under the Rebuild Kerala Initiative. The salient
features of the project is placed as Annexure I to this order. The expenditure regarding
the project will be debited to the budget provision under H/A 5475-00-115-94-Post
flood Projects under Rebuild Kerala Initiative (P).
6. The Survey and Land Records Department will be the implementing agency of the
project. A State Level Program Management Unit (SPMU) will be set up at the Survey
Directorate for the day to day planning and monitoring of the program( Detailed order
regarding the composition of the team, terms of reference etc will be issued separately).
The Regional Director, Survey of India, Kerala and Lakshadweep will provide
necessary technical assistance required for the implementation of the project. The
detailed Action Plan for the implementation of the project is placed as Annexure II to
this order.

7. The Department shall devise a robust dispute resolution mechanism after studying the
ground realities on why the existing system does not work effectively, and steps shall be
taken to incorporate it in the relevant Acts and Rules. The Department shall submit to
the Government proposals for necessary changes in the related statutes for the adoption
of the new system, as and when required during the implementation of the project. The
Department shall take appropriate measures to address the concerns and incorporate the
suggestions put forward by the RKI- Implementation Committee in its meetings held on
02/06/2021 and 13/07/2021.
8. A State-level Apex Committee headed by the Chief Secretary, with the Additional
Chief Secretary (Finance), the Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue), the Chief
Executive Officer- RKI, Regional Director Survey of India, Kerala and Lakshadweep,
Land Revenue Commissioner,Director, Survey & Records Department and Inspector
General of Registration as members shall be constituted for the monitoring of the
program at the state-level. A District level implementation committee headed by the
District Collector shall also be constituted for the monitoring of the program at the
District level. The Revenue Department shall issue separate orders regarding the
constitution of the above said Committees.
9. All procurement as part of implementation of the work shall be done in a fair and
transparent manner in accordance with the extant rules and all mandatory clearances
from relevant departments shall be obtained wherever applicable.
(By order of the Governor)
Rajesh Kumar Singh I A S
Additional Chief Secretary
To:
Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department.
Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue Department.
Director, Survey & Land Records Department, Thiruvananthapuram.
Inspector General of Registration, Thiruvananthapuram.
Commissioner of Land Revenue, Thiruvananthapuram.
The Principal Accountant General (A&E/Audit), Thiruvananthapuram.
Finance Department.
Information & Public Relations (Web & New Media) Department (for
publishing in Government website)
Stock File/ Office Copy [F.No.RKI1/95/2021-PLGEA].
Forwarded /By order
Section Officer

Annexure I
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE PROJECT
Objective:
Digital resurvey, data sharing and integration etc are the major thrust areas of the
proposal and the objectives of the project are as follows;
To complete the Digital Resurvey of 1550 villages by using latest survey
technologies.
To integrate the land record service delivery of three main stakeholders department
(survey, revenue and registration).
To impart training and capacity building of stakeholders departments.
To improve technology and IT infrastructure for building a strong framework of
digitally enabled cadastral system.
Methodology:
The project intend to use a combination of technologies such as the CORS
(Continuously Operating Reference Station) & RTK (Real Time Kinematic) base
station, Drone & LiDAR and ETS for the survey according to the topography. It is
expected that out of the 1550 villages (36,543 sq. km) about 20% ((7,300 Sq Km) of
the area can be surveyed by using Drone technology, about 60% (21,900 Sq Km) of
the area can be surveyed by using CORS + RTK technology and other 20% area
(7,300 Sq Km) of the area can be surveyed by using ETS technology. Following table
details the action plan for carrying out the digital survey activities with the different
methodologies.
Methods and
descriptions
CORS and RTK Drone and LIDAR
technology
ETS survey method
(60% area) (20% area) (20% area)
Team structure 1 surveyor + 1
helper
1 surveyor + 1
helper
2 surveyor +3 helper
Area to be covered
by single team
4Ha(survey) 1Ha(demarcation
and ground truthing)
2Ha(survey)

Average area of a
village
1200 Ha 400Ha(160 Ha by
department surveyors
and 240 Ha by land
owners)
400 Ha
No. of staff required
for one village
5 surveyors +5
helpers
3 surveyors +3
helpers
8 surveyors +12
helpers
No of survey days 60 working days(2.5
months)
60 working days(2.5
months)
60 working days(2.5
months)
Preparatory works,
village boundary
refixing,Govt land
fixing etc
1.5 months 1.5 months 1.5 months
Exhibit of records
and appeal redressal
Total duration for
the survey of on
village
Average duration of
one village
5.5 months
The entire land records available with the Government would be digitized and
made available to the survey teams to speed up the activities. Deployment of
trained private surveyors on contract/daily wages basis under the supervision of
department surveyors are proposed to tide over the issue of shortage of staff.
A settlement authority is also proposed to address disputes.
Since land records databases in digital format is a decisive tool for all planning,
Integration of land records management of Revenue, Survey & Registration
Department in a single window system is also a high priority activity.
Since modern technology and standards are to be used, the existing Survey and
Boundaries act, 1961 has to be updated to meet the newer technology standards.
Inclusion of approved external agencies in data capturing, validation by
department staff, adoption of latest methods of digital survey, legal validity of
RoR etc are also needed to be included in the new Act and Rules. Hence adoption
of institutional and regulatory development and legal/policy changes especially in
the land laws, SOPs, re engineering process etc. forms a component of the project
to ensure that the policy, institutional and regulatory frameworks are strengthened
to support the major program to modernize land records in Kerala, the efficient
and effective maintenance of the land records and the provision of valued and
affordable land administration services.
Survey works done by the agencies shall be validated by the Department staff for

maintaining the accuracy of the work and for ensuring the protection of
Government land from encroachment.
3200 Survey personnel are planned to be deployed over the entire State in such a
way that the digitization of 1 village gets completed in 5.5 months period.
Following are the details regarding the manpower requirement for implementing
the project in time bound manner.
Total surveyors required 16 x 200 villages at a time=3200
Timeframe against manpower(Department
staff)
1700 (1100 surveyors + 600
draftsman)
Timeframe against manpower(Contract
staff)
1500 (Contract Surveyors)
Timeframe against manpower(Helpers) 4000 (20 x 200 villages at a time)
Surveyors required for the survey of one
village in 5.5 months
16 (12 teams)
Total villages to be covered 200 villages in 5.5 months
No. Of villages can be covered in 11
months
400
Time duration for completing survey in
1550 villages
3 years 8 months
Benefits of the project:
Issue of Record of Right (RoR)
Single document as RoR instead of multiple land documents to prove land ownership.
Online service delivery as part of ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
Simplifying of life of the people as the entire program is aimedat reducing the citizen
touch points.
Settlement of long pending land issues and disputes.
Transparency of every land transaction with pre-registration sketch and ground
reflection.
Records are prepared digitally, Government can easily identify Government land for
various developmental projects.
The details of the Government properties such as roads, canal, dry land etc. can be
easily identified by common public with the help of digital maps and will help to
reduce the encroachment.
Single window portal will expedite the process of online mutation process and public
will get their map and RoR in an online fashion (single window portal).

Government can expedite all the developmental project like widening of road,
identifying no-mans land, land acquisition etc.
Disaster management and resilience will be effective on top of digital cadastral and
GIS platform.
GIS maps and multi-purpose cadastral can be utilized for various research institutions
for their studies.
Revenue generation possibilities:
Demand collection/revenue collection from public through sale of record of rights,
sale of maps and registers etc.
Huge demand is expected for the digital GIS cadastral data from stakeholders (both
private and Govt.).
Since the cadastral data products are acting as a base planning tool, the saleability of
the digital cadastral data is another revenue source.
Disaster preparedness and post disaster resilience and resultant economic gains are
also to be quantified in terms of money as far as this entire program is concerned.
Financial Outlay for the First Phase of the project:
Digital Resurvey of 1550 villages in the State : (Phase 1 – 400 villages)
Item Cost (INR)
Policy, Institutional and Regulatory
Development
18,00,000
Development of ICT System for Land
Administration
7,38,00,000
Old record preservation 15,00,000
Development and Scaling-Up of an Efficient
Resurvey Procedure
330,69,60,000
Project Management and Capacity Building 103,20,000
Total 339.438
Conclusion:
The project is envisaged to integrate land records management of Revenue, Survey &
Registration Department in single window system in the context of ‘Build back better’
concept which is proposed by RKI for a resilient Kerala. A comprehensive integration
approach and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is proposed through effective digital
land survey of the State. Access of land records to the beneficiary is one of the high
priorities identified in this program. In order to achieve this, the whole State must be

digitally surveyed in a short period of time. This project will have a far reaching
positive impact in the overall economic prosperity and harmony of the State of Kerala.
In addition to that the proposed project execution will bring a lot of positive
transformation and goodness in the day to day life of people of the State as well as the
governance mechanism.
*****

DIGITAL RE-SURVEY OF 1550
VILLAGES IN 3 YEARS 8
MONTHS
This project is envisaged for digital re survey of 1550 villages
within four years period and integrate the land records of Revenue, Survey
& Registration Department in a single window system with the background
of ‘Build Back Better’ concept of RKI for a disaster resilience State in
Land Sector
Action Plan
Annexure II

Contents
CHAPTER- I 2
Overview of the entire program 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
INTRODUCTION 3
SCOPE 4
OBJECTIVES 5
Chapter –II 6
Existing activities in the present resurvey process: Issues and challenges 6
Chapter –III 13
Various Issues Faced during the Resurvey process 13
Chapter –IV 17
Drawbacks of demand base survey 17
Chapter V 22
Methodologies and approaches 22
Chapter - VI 27
Detailed Project Report of the Digital Survey Program 28
Chapter VII 44
Project Estimate Part 46
Chapter VIII 51
REVENUE GENERATION MODEL 51
Chapter IX 52
BENEFITS AND SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS 52
CONCLUSION 53
‘Action plan for digital resurvey of 1550 villages in Four Years’ – By Survey and Land Records Department - 1
Detailed Project Report

CHAPTER- I
Overview of the entire program
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 2018 and 2019 devastating floods (that affected nearly 40 percent of villages in the state)
highlight the challenges of Kerala's resilience and disaster risk management readiness due to
incomplete, inconsistent and institutionally fragmented legal records on land, and outdated,
non-digital cadastral maps. Presently, 379 of the 983 directly impacted villages of the floods
have only historical mapping on land holdings dating back commonly to over a century.
Secure land rights are important for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity for
individuals, communities and the country. In particular, secure land titles offer crucial
benefits for vulnerable and poor groups such as indigenous/tribal people and women (Bank,
2020). In Kerala, the resurvey started in 1966 and about 50 percent resurvey are completed.
There are many ongoing problems including long-term complaints, the lack of spatial records
updation and limited access to spatial and textual records etc are existed. Changes in policy,
the regulatory framework and institutional roles and responsibilities and procedures are
appropriate. Therefore, a workable proposal is prepared by understanding the impediments in
land sector to overcome future disasters. Digital resurvey, data sharing and integration etc are
the major thrust area focussed in this proposal. Stakeholder data sharing approach will
improve wider spatial data (Cadastral) sharing and breaking data silos. This model will also
improve interaction and relation with Department of Survey & Land Records by
strengthening the SDI platform by connecting and providing access to the cadastral seamless
map and land records for better disaster preparedness and resilience mechanism. Above all,
as part of the program, institutional, technical and operational integration and programming
are required to complete and update land records systematically and resurveying across
Kerala. In particular, the requirements for technical capacity for modernization of land
records, preparation of seamless cadastral map and resurveying, requires building the
necessary capacity in all involved departments and wider Kerala’s industry to perform
functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably. Such efforts will directly benefit strategies
for GoK in the event of a future disaster and will also provide the platform and tools for
efficient growth of property markets.

INTRODUCTION
Land administration and governance are the sole responsibilities of the Government.
Safeguarding the ownership of land, providing user-friendly, efficient mechanisms for
citizens to buy, own, mortgage, sell and transfer the ownership of land are also functions of a
modern Government. Good land governance obviously will elevate social development
index, social harmony, and economic growth rate. So the generation of error free, digital land
records is essential for the overall future development in all the sectors.
However, several IT initiatives have been made for transforming the existing conventional
land records maintenance in the different stakeholders department (Revenue, Survey and
Registration), a substantial improvement has not yet achieved in terms of an integrated digital
solution. So far resurvey of 909 villages was completed and land records were handed over
for the Revenue administration. In 29 villages, the resurvey is progressing. Out of the 1,666
villages, 728 still remain to be surveyed. The resurvey of the 909 villages has been completed
by taking almost five decades time.
The Department of Survey and Land
Records is one of the oldest departments
in the state. The main responsibility of the
department is to prepare the land records
for the land administration via the
Revenue department. Except 87 villages
in, all the remaining villages which were
resurveyed by using conventional methods
(Chain, Cross staff, Theodolite etc.) and
the records were prepared as paper maps
in local coordinate systems. These records
have defects, inherent errors etc. Since the
records are in hardcopy nature and not
having a universal coordinate system,
digitization and bringing that into WGS-
84 geo-coordinate standards are found to
be an impossible task. In order to address the issue, the only way forward is the fresh digital
survey of the entire State.

In the meeting held by Hon. Chief Minister on 10/11/2020 regarding the review of progress
of resurvey, it was decided to approve the proposal of ‘Action plan for digital resurvey of
villages’. It was also decided that the fund for the same to be allocated from either State Plan
Fund or RKI project and necessary steps to be ensured by the State Planning Board and
Finance Department in that respect. Hence a detailed project proposal is prepared for getting
the financial assistance from RKI program as this project is also part of the build back better
program in one of the key components ie., Land Sector.
SCOPE
The scope of the program is defined based on the earlier direction obtained from GoK as per
the G.O. MS. No.28/2017 Revenue dtd: 24/01/17 and Government has directed that resurvey
to be restarted in the State in modern methods. The previous technology ie., Electronic Total
Stations (ETS) are very limited in number in the department and hence there are practical
difficulties encountered for large scale roll out of the digital survey. Similarly the department
manpower also engaged in land records maintenance wing and other infrastructure
development survey works. Therefore, the time bound resurvey works with engagement of
contract based surveyor along with in-house resources and more use of modern survey
technologies like CORS, RTK, Drone and LiDAR survey etc are also proposed for the timely
completion of this task. A mission mode style of work is also envisaged for the timely
completion of this program.

OBJECTIVES
Following are the specific objectives set out for building a strong and resilient Kerala in the
Land Sector and they are:
● To complete the Digital Resurvey of 1550 villages by using latest survey technologies
● To integrate the land record service delivery of three main stakeholders department
(survey, revenue and registration)
● To impart training and capacity building of stakeholders departments
● To improve technology and IT infrastructure for building a strong framework of
digitally enabled cadastral system

Chapter –II
Existing activities in the present resurvey process: Issues and challenges
The Resurveys have always been regarded as a cumbersome activity involving multiple
processes with lots of manpower involvement. In the normal course of resurvey activities, the
Government land and village boundary will be re-fixed on the ground in the initial stage
survey to ensure exact assessment, record preparation and protection of such valuable lands.
Subsequently on verification of documents provided by the land owners, all private lands will
be surveyed according to the possession which are undisputed and well defined boundaries
seen on the ground. Some of the activities in this line are mentioned below for an overall
understanding.
IEC Activities - This awareness campaign deserves utmost importance in the entire process
of resurvey. An ample publicity among all stakeholders (other Govt. departments and
especially to the citizen) determines the key to the success rate of the entire process of
resurvey. Most of the time, citizens may not be well aware of the actual benefit of resurvey.
Hence non production of land record details, reluctance on cooperation to the resurvey party
etc from the side of citizens has been a common phenomenon and which results in large
number of complaints after resurvey.
In order to overcome the situation,
publicity through all sorts of Medias like print,
visual media, FM radio etc. need to be done.
Distribution of pamphlets, notice etc prepared in
local language is also found essential to create
awareness among all the sections of
stakeholders. Convening of ‘Gramasabha’ with
the active participation of panchayat members,
district authorities etc are also found essential for the effective implementation of the
program.
Reluctance on cooperation - Cooperation from the land owners is of utmost importance in
the entire process of resurvey. Many of the time, reluctance on cooperation to the resurvey

party etc from the side of citizens has been a common
phenomenon and which results in large number of
litigations after resurvey.
Old record collection – In order to protect the
Government land, old records like litho map, FMB,
settlement/adangal registers, old measurement sketches,
land acquisition sketches, details of excess land,
purambok details, revenue details etc are essential for various reference at the time of
resurvey. These records are scattered in various offices: Survey office, Village office, Taluk
office, District collectorates , LA offices, archives department, etc. Manual collection of these
records would take a lot of time. This often takes longer than expected.
GPS observation works - In order to eliminate the error in survey activities, Survey is doing
the “Whole to Part” concept. Ground Control Point marking (primary, secondary and tertiary)
on the scanned lithomap and preparing a rough triangulation map is one of the preliminary
works for the GCP establishment works. After the pillars are installed on the ground, the GPS
observations survey to be conducted. A central team with the assistance of district staff (staff
those who trained in GPS), the GPS survey to be conducted. Since the GPS survey is
determining the accuracy of the entire survey works, utmost care should be given on the
observation part. Minimum 2 hours GPS observation is required in all the tertiary points in
the village. After considering the travel time, station set up etc from one location to another,
three shifts of observation can be completed with the existing conditions.

Traverse demarcation - Traverse is also a framework like GPS stations. This network will
be acting as the fourth level control stations for ascertaining the accuracy of the detailed ETS
survey works. Proper junctions, suitable places of traverse points etc need to be found out on
the ground by field visits. Stone plating/marking will be done on the field in this activity.
This work will be done with the help of ETS survey instruments. Every traverse stations will
be observed with utmost care. Traverse should be closed without any errors (either with
nearby GCP or to the starting traverse station). In earlier times, theodolite instruments were
used instead of ETS. Highest level of supervision/checking is needed in this task. Most of the
time repeated observation is needed to be conducted to attain the desired accuracy.

Ayacut survey and stone planting - Ayacut survey or Govt. land survey is one of the
important works in resurvey. This survey is also one of the areas where so much attention,
care etc are deserved. Re-fixing of old survey stones on Govt. property and finding out the
encroachment are also involved in this task. Proper installations of missing stones are also
involved in this task. Since most of the Government lands are roads, these activities may
most of the time be disturbed due to heavy traffic and the entire process may be prolonged.
After the ayacut re-fixing only, it could be possible to start survey of other field boundaries.
Village boundary re-fixing -Village boundaries are defined and demarcated with the
presence of natural and manmade features that are available in the ground such as river,
ridges, roads, canals etc. The old boundaries of the village need to be retracted on the ground
during the course of resurvey. This should be re-fixed on the ground for the area calculation
and village boundary map preparation etc.
Demarcation survey - In location survey, detailed checking of the field boundaries, bend
points etc will be assessed and a demarcation sketch will be prepared. This assessment will be
helpful for the ETS teams for executing the work in a more convenient and easy manner.
Practice of planting of survey stones – As a practice of
following the traditional approaches, each and every bend
points are marked with survey stones with specific dimensions
and design. This is a tedious and costly affair. Though the
citizen satisfaction is the prime concern, that age old practice
are still prevailing in the resurvey process.
Manual preparation of land registers – As part of the
preparation of land records, there are various registers are
needed to be prepared. As a customary practice, this has been
prepared in manual method earlier (hand written). This
consumes much of the time and effort in the entire process. Possibilities of errors are also
there due to the unscientific practices. Nowadays, this system has been transformed to
computer assisted work and web enabled interface are also designed as part of this.

Detailed survey by using ETS - After location and demarcation survey, detailed ETS survey
works to be started. This is one of the major works in terms of the entire process and
workloads are concern. Each and every plot boundary is needed to be surveyed by using the
instrument called Electronic Total Station (ETS) in this task.
Data entry works for register preparations - After
detailed ETS survey works, the textual data entry works
(for the preparation of various registers like Land Register,
BTR, TPR, Correlation Register etc) need to be entered
with the available documents which are collected from the
parties.

FMB mapping - After detailed ETS survey works, the field data need to be downloaded in
the computer and the value (bend point data) should be plotted on the computer (by using Lis
cad software). After cad export, the FMB should be prepared in the predefined layout.
Scrutiny of the prepared records (maps and registers) - After the preparation of maps
(Block map and FMB) and various registers, quality checking should be done by the office
team to ascertain the correctness of the works.
Printing of maps and registers - After the scrutiny works, the prepared maps and registers
to be printed in different paper sizes (Block map are in A0 size, FMB’s are in A3 size).
Notification of records as per section 9 (2) - After the above process are over, the village
name with details should be published in the gazette as per the section 9 (2) of the survey and
boundaries act. After the above notification process is over, the records should be
conveniently exhibited in any of the public halls so that people can come and verify the draft
records being prepared on their respective lands. Discrepancies if any found out by their
observations, they can submit a complaint to the combatant authority. 30 days is the statutory
period for this activity.
Addressing of ALC - During the course of exhibition, there will be a number of complaints
with regards to the survey which includes area changes, sub division changes, measurement
changes or even attribute changes etc. Necessary revisit of the field and resolving of the
above complaints are essential in this task. This is a refined record after the Appeal Land

Complaint (ALC) addressal (on draft published records). Both maps and registers shall be
cross checked with utmost care for the preparation of final records.
The textual data entry corrections are also to be carried out in the registers which are prepared
at the time of section 9 (2) stage. All the changes in the ownerships that are made as per the
ALC will incorporate into the 9 (2) records.
Printing of Final Maps and Records - After completing all modifications, final maps and
registers printing need to be done for publishing section 13. The records that are needed to be
printed for the finalization of the works are: Field Measurement Sketch, Block Map,
Correlation register, Area register, Basic tax register, Thandaper register, Purambook register,
Nalathu Purambook register, Tarisu register, Village map (all 4 copies).
Record handing over to the revenue administration - Finally the records which are
published as per the 13 notification of the survey and boundaries act will be handed over to
the Revenue administration for further land record management and tax collection etc. One
set of records to be distributed to the concerned Assistant Director, resurvey Office and
another set will be sent to the Central Survey Office.
Overall, all the above procedures seem to be time consuming and not fully digital in nature.
Hence there is a scope for technology transformation, process re engineering etc to increase
the accuracy, acceptability and rate of coverage of survey activities. Use of most modern
technology (not only one methodology but a combination of many methods like drone
LiDAR, CORS and RTK and even ETS survey techniques) and its usage will substantially
improve the overall efficiency of survey activities.

Chapter –III
Various Issues Faced during the Resurvey process
Different Stakeholders - In Kerala Revenue, Survey and Registration departments are
handling land related matters. Revenue and Survey Departments are under one ministry and
Registration Department is under another
ministry. If the three departments come
under one ministry, policy decisions regarding
land records integration matters may take
quickly. Registration of land is happening
without an approved sketch. After registration
the application will be submitted to the Taluk
office for Pokkuvaravu (Mutation). But many
of the land holders will not show interest to
apply for the pokkuvaravu (mutation) after
registration. They will apply when they want to take a loan or want to sell, then only they will
come for the mutation. So the land records could not be updated properly.
No maps for Register a document -While registering documents, SRO is not verifying the
survey number, subdivision number and area scientifically. Registering the document with
the information that is provided by the client are taken into consideration. It may sometimes
lead to differences in survey number, subdivision number and area after resurvey with the
document they registered. This may be attributed to the resurvey complaints many of the
times. This can be solved by implementing a compulsory sketch for every subsequent action.
For this integrated land management system and updated land records are needed.
No unique standard -There are three different departments (Survey, Revenue, and
Registration) involved in the land record management activities of the State. There is no
unified/standard system or practice in place wherein single window operation of land
transaction, continuous updation of cadastral data takes place. In order to effectively
execute the integration of land records delivery among three stakeholder departments, a
comprehensive system study needs to be conducted. There are different practices; systems

exist within the departments itself. Different districts are practicing various systems. Hence
unique standards and standardisation on land records practices need to be formulated.

Inadequate Software and workflow - Currently the online Pokkuvaravu (mutation) of land
records are done through ‘RELIS’ software of the Revenue department. Land records
updation (textural data only) is also entering in the said software. As the map data of the
Survey department are not fully digitized and geo referenced, the integration of map data into
the RELIS is not possible as of now. Similarly the ‘OPENPEARL’ software of the
Registration department is also not linked with Survey data.The major hurdles faced in the
integration process are the non-availability of digitized map data from the Survey department.
Paper records - Almost 95% of the resurveyed villages are completed by using conventional
methods (chain, crosstaff, theodolite) and the resulted paper maps are in local coordinate
systems. These records also have defects and inherent errors. As compared with the latest
technology like ETS and DGPS, digital survey will give mm level accurate data. Moreover,
the survey was conducted long back in these villages and not updated so far. Since the
records are in hardcopy nature and not having a universal coordinate system, digitization and
bringing that into WGS-84 geo-coordinate standards are found to be an impossible task. In
order to address the issue, the only way forward is the fresh digital survey of the entire State.
Both un-resurveyed villages and conventionally surveyed villages are also to be considered
for the digital survey to generate the land records into the same standard.
Shortage of Instruments - The Electronic Total Stations (ETS)
are very limited in the department and the manpower is engaged
into Land records maintenance wing, and other infrastructure
development survey works like Pattaya survey, Purambook
survey, Refixing survey, Forest survey etc. So the number of
villages that can be undertaken at a time is very limited. Since
the manpower and resources are insufficient to complete the
survey of the entire state in a short period of time.
No updation in Maps - Proper updation is not happening in the master data. All the changes
are reflected in the individual maps. In many of the times, map updation is not at all
happening. All the changes cannot be updated in the master map due to the incorporation
difficulties as paper records. Timely mother sketch updation only possible if it is in digital
GIS seamless data with web editing facilities.

Geographical conditions - Crowded buildings and tall vegetations limiting to apply modern
survey technologies like Photogrammetry, Ariel survey etc in the state. As far as the Kerala
terrain conditions are concerned, only field survey work are mostly possible. But it will
consume more time and manpower compared to Photogrammetry, Ariel survey etc. Having
said that, the possibilities can be
explored with the latest technologies
like drone survey, LIDAR sensors
etc. Open areas like paddy fields,
vacant lands, water bodies etc are
also other possible areas for drone
techniques to cover.
Variation in Survey Number - The
survey number recorded in the documents / title / revenue documents etc often do not match
the survey number of the actual land holdings. Although land tax is levied on such lands at
the Village Offices without knowing the difference, this discrepancy is detected accurately at
the time of resurvey and such landlords are unable to pay the land tax after the re survey.
Variation in Area – Without any scientific survey, registrations of lands are happening in
the state. Therefore, the area noted in the document and the area of holdings which are
scientifically surveyed and prepared on the basis of current holdings, are often inconsistent.
Since the land tax is levied on the basis of the area of the resurvey when the resurvey records
come into force in the revenue administration, this often leads to resurvey complaints.
Changes in the type of land –Wet land to dry land conversion has been a controversial issue
for several years. In resurvey the reference record verified by the resurvey party is the back
record (settlement registers or adangal register etc). Agriculture land has been used as a house
and ancillary activities for many years even if it is wet land in the previous registers. At the
time of resurvey, there is no provision for changing the original tenure of land and hence it
has been marked as “Nilam” in resurvey records and such marking by blindly adopting the
year old reference records often leads to many resurvey complaints. In such cases, an
effective land settlement mechanism is the ideal option to suggest.

Chapter –IV
Drawbacks of demand base survey
In 2012, Demand based re survey system had been introduced in the State against the
entire village resurvey and it led to many inconveniences of operations in the survey
department and citizens. Later, in 2017, Government was very well convinced that the
resurvey of the entire village could not be avoided due to many factors and the demand based
survey system was found not practical to execute. In order to conduct effective revenue
administration like addressing the land disputes, preventing the encroachment and for many
other reasons, the entire village survey and its records have a decisive role. Therefore, on
24/01/2017, Government has restarted the resurvey of the entire state, which was dissolved
the earlier order (demand-based survey), with the aim of completing the survey in a time-
bound manner.
Land is one of the most valuable and coveted assets of people in the world and hence
the issues based on land disputes have been prevailing since civilization started. Despite very
few complaints regarding the resurvey records, the survey records which were prepared by

the Department of Survey and Land Records are playing a very important and major role to
resolve the land related issues legally. In addition to this, the resurvey process eases the
Revenue administration and helps to levy on tax based on the proper revenue records.
Therefore, from the previous experience, few more points and drawbacks which would have
to be faced if we implement the demand based survey are given below:
1. Tax collection on land depends on accurate survey records and measurements are in place.
Without proper spatial records, the textual data, parcel numbering and area of private
holdings will be inaccurate.
2. On demand based survey will generate the land records of the state in different, non
standard formats. Digitally resurveyed government land and non-surveyed private lands
will not match together. This leads to a situation where we end up with two sets of records
which are incompatible or can never be fit together.
3. Lack of accurate land records in the state will lead to a situation where land records are
absent, which in-turn exponentially give rise to disputes and cases leading to an
unmanageable situation in the long run. This has to be read with the ground reality of the
state where we have a very high number of fragmented high value holdings. This will lead
to a situation where issues which are uncovered and settled during the survey process,
including boundary disputes, end up in courts, choking the judicial system. A lot of
criminal cases too have its origin in land ownership and possession; hence a proper set of
surveyed and settled records is necessary for addressing the same.
4. The vision of the Government is to move towards conclusive land titling. Resurvey,
settling of tenancies and disputes, RoR of the entire area are necessary for issuing
conclusive titles. An exponential increase in land related disputes could defeat the purpose
on a Conclusive title.
5. Multiple services which are rendered by the Government depend on the availability of
seamless land parcel maps. Absence of accurate records in the first place significantly
increases the delay and cost in rendering such services, both to public and Government. Eg
– Land Conversion, Issuing Pattayams, Fixation of Fair value, Road widening etc.

6. Demand based survey does not cover all parcels of the village and hence it is not possible
to prepare a Village, Taluk or District map after the survey. In short it is not a
comprehensive survey altogether.
7. The coordinate-based maps which are created post digital survey forms the base map for
use of various departments for various purposes, like disaster management, hazard prone
area mapping, property mapping, utility line mapping, land use pattern, town planning, fair
value assessment etc. So it is necessary to conduct a complete village resurvey to prepare
an accurate base map which can be used for various departments for various purposes.
Whereas the demand-based survey only produces few records which would be scattered
and unmanageable in nature.
8. Many of the time, proper land records and sketches will not be available in the quasi-
government institutions like KSEB, KSRTC, hospitals and land belonging to LSGIs etc.
So, demand-based survey cannot meet the requirements of such Govt. institutions in which
common boundaries are shared with private properties and hence to demarcate Govt land,
survey of private land is also essential.
9. Land which are not presently Government land but which is vested with LSGIs both via
land title transfer or otherwise (use only) will not be addressed through a demand-based
survey.

10. The reduction in Government land can be rectified only if the adjoining private land is
surveyed in case of reduction in side dimensions/area while re-fixing Government land as
per records.
11. Surplus land cannot be identified and added to the Government account in the case of
demand based survey. This is a very crucial aspect in terms of an effective land
administration system especially for the distribution of excess land to the landless poor,
issuing of patta and finding land for other Govt. development projects etc.
12. Complaints of property owners who are unable to pay land taxes in the absence of an
existing revenue records and such issues can only be resolved once the village is fully re
surveyed and settled.
13. The survey of private properties as per the demand will never be able to complete the
survey of a village as the property owners will submit applications one after the other,
leading to a chaotic situation.
14. Even after such efforts, no GIS mapping and resultant spatial planning are found
impossible in the demand based survey.
15. Proper distribution of staff and their effective management etc will be a greater issue as
the demand comes from the public very randomly and scattered and whereas full resurvey
is much systematic in its operations.
16. In order to survey the property of an applicant in this way, notice has to be given to the
nearest property owners and sometimes their plot measurements also have to be taken for
ascertaining the area. In effect the workload will be doubled and less output for this kind
of random survey.
17. If the village is surveyed from time to time as per the demand, it will not be possible to
provide a systematic survey numbering and complexities of such a numbering system will
create a room for large level litigation and complaints.
18. Issue of Ni-ke lands and other unsurveyed private lands in Northern Kerala need to be
addressed under digital resurvey.

19. The need of the hour is a total resurvey of the state, and a sustainable model for revenue
generation from records thus created and a pay-back model.

Chapter V
Methodologies and approaches
a) Hypotheses and assumptions
❑ Total area to be surveyed in the State is 36,543 Sq Km (in 1550 Villages)
❑ About 20 % (7,300 Sq Km) of the area can be surveyed by using Drone technology
❑ About 60% (21,900 Sq Km) of the area can be surveyed by using CORS + RTK
technology
❑ About 20 % (7,300 Sq Km) of the area can be surveyed by using ETS technology
Main methods to be employed for the completion of digital survey is explained in detail
below:
b) CORS & RTK - A Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network is a
network of Real Time Kinematic (RTK) base stations that broadcast corrections,
usually over an internet connection. Accuracy is increased in a CORS network,
because more than one station helps to ensure correct positioning and guards against a
false initialization of a single base station. This technology will bring more efficiency,
accuracy etc in the survey works of Kerala.
The advancement of GPS technology like Real Time Kinematic (RTK) processing techniques
paved the way for eliminating the traverse works in today’s world. RTK uses a fixed base

station and a rover machine to reduce the rover's positional errors. The base station transmits
correction data to the rover on a real time basis. This system will avoid the post processing
correction work and which saves considerable time for the surveyors. In other words, the
device which is capable of collecting RTK signal will get the correction applied to the GPS
value in the field itself. This device can replace the ETS devices in the survey works which
may greatly reduce the duration in completing survey works. When CORS set up is
established, RTK devices can be synchronised with CORS and bring out quick results in
survey works with highest accuracy.
One surveyor can directly measure the parcel bends by using an RTK device without
referring to any traverse stations and with less manpower. Since the RTK device gets
correction signal from CORS, every bend point will get the desired accuracy level. In
addition to that the envisaged system will greatly reduce many of the frameworks;
preparatory works etc in resurvey process. In a way, the re survey of an entire village can be
replaced with an updation survey of any piece of land irrespective of its size, boundary etc
without any framework. This may reduce the workload of LRM and re survey operations and
may bring advanced level of GIS data for web enabled services.

c) Drone and LiDAR technology
The areas where more open space and built-up land are available; that area can be surveyed
with the Drone and LiDAR technology. It is assumed that about 20% of the state land area is
under such terrain.
d) ETS survey
This is the existing survey methodology practiced in the state. This is a much time
consuming methodology and also a more manpower intensive method. Whereas the

advantage is that this technology can be used where there is tree cover and low
satellite signal areas. So this technology can be supplemented with the above two
technologies.
e) Scanning of entire survey records – Since the survey records are scattered across
the various offices, more time has to be spent to collect the necessary records and
often it would not be available as well. Hence the entire land records including old
survey maps, land acquisition and land assignment maps and the maps available with
various Government departments and agencies would be digitalized by scanning
through District Digitization Centers and mapping offices and made available to the
survey teams to speed up the survey activities.
c) Private Surveyor -The staff of the department are inadequate to complete the
resurvey work on time. In addition, the services of surveyors are being utilized for
surveys as part of various development activities being implemented in the State,
including Land Records Maintenance (LRM), Land acquisition, Land assignment,
Pattayam Survey, Forest Survey etc. For these reasons, there has always been a
shortage of manpower for the Survey Department's own activity of Resurvey. The
Survey Department has so far completed re-survey activities of 909 villages in
different periods utilizing the staff of the Department. Of these, excluding 87 villages
that have been surveyed using modern survey instruments, remaining villages were
surveyed using traditional survey equipment and the records are in paper form. Thus it
is not possible to provide online service in a timely manner with paper records. In
order to provide digital service on land records, digital records of entire villages has to
be prepared. Using the department resources alone it would take decades together to
achieve the above goal. In case of inadequacy of existing survey staff for all survey
activities, the shortage of surveyors can be filled by deploying trained private
surveyors on contract/daily wages basis under the supervision of department
surveyors.
d) Settlement Authority – No settlement has been occurring in the state and hence
thousands of disputes are pending with the department. In order to address the deputes
like differences in area between document and as per survey, changes in sub division
numbers, changes in land tenure and many can be eliminated through this settlement
mechanism.
e) Issue of RoR - Now citizens has to visit multiple offices to prove their ownership
of land in case if they are apply for a bank loan or similar situations. If all the details

of a particular plot such as registered document details, ownership details, survey
map, encumbrance details etc can be provided as a single document to citizens in the
form of RoR. This will create easiness to the life of citizens.
d) Field level mapping software (connected with rover)
CORS technology and connected RTK rovers are very advanced mapping technology
in terms of its time effective usefulness and operations. Field level online mapping
facilities with the controller devices attached with rovers are intended for the digital
mapping. In this way, the workload of post processing (lab work) can be reduced
substantially and this may save a lot of time and effort. Previous history data may be
kept as a reference layer in the working devices (geo-referenced maps) and that will
give a clear cut indication of where the surveyors are standing. Though the base layer
of old records may not have a high level of accuracy, the location information that can
give may substantially improve the work of the surveyor during the field level works.
f) Mobile app for data collection and data entry
As part of resurvey process, the land register (details of land owners) is prepared
manually. Only after the land register is prepared manually, other records which are
essential for revenue administration are prepared using data entry applications (RMS
software). This consumes so much time during the resurvey process. In order to avoid
manual preparation of land registers and to do the live entry at the field, a dedicated
mobile application can be customised such a way that it would handshake with ReLIS
software. Pre-populated data from ReLIS and PEARL should be there in the data
entry application. On the field this should be synchronized with the data captured by
the mapping devices (RTK rover). Once the resurvey is over and published, the data
should automatically be a part of the workflow to the ReLIS platform for the Revenue
administration. In this way a lot of post processing operations can be eliminated.
f) Integration of services -There are three different departments (Survey, Revenue,
and Registration) involving in the land record management activities of the State;
there is no unified/standard system or practice in place wherein single window
operation of land transaction, continuous updation of cadastral data is takes place.
Land records databases in digital format will act as a decisive tool for any planning,
infrastructure, and agriculture development etc of the State. A good land governance
will obviously lead to an elevated social development index, social harmony,
economic growth rate etc.

Integration of land records management of Revenue, Survey & Registration
Department in a single window system is very much essential for the benefit of
citizens and good governance as well as efficient revenue administration. So a
comprehensive integration of software and single window access of land records to
the beneficiary is also one of the high priorities of the department.
i) Amendments in rules -At present all the survey works are undertaking based on
the Survey and Boundaries Act 1961. Since modern technology and standards are to
be used, the existing Survey and Boundaries act has to be updated to meet the newer
technology standards. Inclusion of approved external agencies in data capturing,
validation by department staff, adoption of latest methods of digital survey, legal
validity of RoR etc are also needed to be included in the new Act and Rules.
j) Validation process- The survey works done by the agencies can be validated by
the Department staff for maintaining the accuracy of the work and to ensure the
protection of Government land from encroachment.
k) Provide service at the doorstep of citizens (verification sheets) -After surveying
and mapping, a verification sheet (parcel map with attribute information) can be
issued to the land owners by the survey agency in a prescribed manner. Parties should
either accept it in writing or they may report it back if any mismatch/complaints
existed in the survey. Based on that further field visit, corrections should be carried
out by the agency. The changes can be incorporated and publication can be done, so
that active public participation can be ensured. Acceptance certificate from land
holder and percentage of errors will be a key factor to decide the payment to the
agency.
l) E-file management (e-office) – Such type of file flow with authority and log
tracking mechanism to be adopted in the resurvey data preparation. This will facilitate
complete accountability and transparency in land records.
m) Manpower and infrastructure requirements
A broad framework of the deployment of manpower and plan of action for the
completion of 1550 villages are proposed in this proposal. About 2000 number of
department surveyors (including draftsman) are proposed for the effective
implementation of this program within 4 years. In addition to that, the success rate of
the drone survey under SVAMITVA project may also determine the speed of the
entire re survey program.

Chapter - VI
Detailed Project Report of the Digital Survey Program
This section of the document gives a detailed narration of the program activities, the cost
estimate for various components etc. A high-level work plan for the Road Map is set out as
part of this.
Component - 1. Policy, Institutional and Regulatory Development
In the previous meeting of RKI on this subject convened earlier, the chairman opined that
there should be a provision in the DPR for adopting institutional and regulatory development
and legal/policy changes especially in the land laws, SOPs, reengineering process etc. The
objective of this component is to ensure that the policy, institutional and regulatory
frameworks are strengthened to support:
a) in the near-term, the major program to modernize land records in Kerala, and
b) in the medium- to long-term, the efficient and effective maintenance of the land
records and the provision of valued and affordable land administration services to
Government, investors and the institutions supporting sustainable land development in
Kerala and citizens in general so that the land assets in the state best serve the existing
and future economic, social and environmental needs of society.
This component will: (a) result in a clear legal/policy statement on the status of the cadastral
map; (b) prepare policy, regulations, new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and
capacity building plans for the Departments of Survey and Land Records, Revenue and
Registration; (c) develop policy, regulations and SOPs to support the introduction of private
surveyors; (d) design and implement a public awareness campaign for the improved land
administration system; and (e) prepare a business plan for the Survey and Land Records
Department.
1.1.Clear legal/regulatory statement on status of cadastral map and RoR
The spatial records produced in the past and maintained by the Survey and Land Records
Department were produced by a system that was established to collect land revenue.
Although significant work has been undertaken by the Survey and Land Records Department
using increasingly sophisticated survey and mapping technology since the resurvey was
commenced in 1966 there are significant problems due to the fact that most land records are
in paper format and there has been little if any updating of these records. As a result, the

computerised system in the Revenue Department
(ReLIS) and in the Registration Department (PEARL)
operate as textural databases without a direct digital
linkage to the spatial records. The spatial records are
mostly manual, the resurvey is only about 50%
complete and the records produced in the resurvey are
not being updated. Significant effort and investment
will be required address these shortcomings. A key
issue that needs to be resolved is the legal status of the
cadastral map, Record of Right (RoR) and Settlement.
A broad level system study, analysis are required with
the leadership of Kerala Land Records Modernization Mission (KLRMM) to prepare a
report, conduct relevant study tours, conduct stakeholder workshops and make presentations
to policy-makers in order to reach agreement on the legal status of the cadastral map and RoR
to put this agreement in regulatory effect.
1.2.Joint activity on policy, regulations, SOPs, capacity building plans
The Land Records Modernization Program will produce
digital spatial and textual data, improved land records
management systems and improved land administration
services. The successful introduction of these improved
land records systems will require changes in policy,
regulations and SOPs for the three Departments of Survey
and Land Records, Revenue and Registration. These
changes in policy, regulations and SOPs will be developed in a joint activity by staff from the
three Departments under the following themes or topics:
a) the development and implementation of an integrated digital Land Information
System;
b) the development, testing and implementation of improved, streamlined resurvey
processes;
c) the introduction of a state-wide, seamless cadastral map; and RoR
d) the development, implementation and enforcement of a modified mutation process to
ensure that the cadastral map and RoR is updated automatically.

Significant capacity building and training will be required to implement the new policy,
regulations and SOPs. The policy, regulations and SOPs will be developed by a dedicated
group of specialists from each department. A program of stakeholder workshops will also be
designed and implemented to capture the key issues and suggestions for improvement, to
develop and refine proposals for new policy, regulations and SOPs and to introduce the
policy, regulations and SOPs.
1.3.Policy, regulations and SOPs for contract surveyors
The resurvey activity and the ongoing maintenance and updating of the Land Records will
require significant survey input, more that currently exists in the Department of Survey and
Land Records and more that can realistically be expected to be employed by the Department.
An earlier G.O during 2017 made provision for establishing a system of private cadastral
surveyors. However, a system has not been established. A system to implement the order will
require a few actions, including:
a) specifying the academic qualifications and professional experience required to be
recognized as a private surveyor and the procedures for initial and ongoing
registration
b) preparation and dissemination of instructions/directions that guide the practices of
private surveyors,
c) agreements with tertiary education and training institutions and professional
associations to support private surveyors
d) establishing systems for private surveyors on contract/daily wages basis to have
access to existing government records and information
e) Specifying the requirements and procedures for private surveyors to submit land
records to the Government and the procedures for Government examination and
acceptance of the records submitted by private surveyors.
Many jurisdictions in India, have established systems for private surveyors and Kerala has to
be benefited of having this experience.
1.4.Public Awareness Campaign for improved land administration
The Land Records Modernization program and the activities to computerise records and
improve service delivery will provide significant improvements to Government, the private
sector and citizens in general. In addition to improvements in existing services, the improved
land records system will result in new services being available. New policy, regulations and
SOPs will be required to support these improved and new services. Improving the land

records system will require significant effort and investment. The results of this effort and
investment will degrade over time if Government agencies, the private sector and citizens do
not use the improved services to upgrade changes in land rights, responsibilities and
restrictions.
An effort to develop and implement a comprehensive public information and awareness
(PIA) campaign for the new system. Implementing the public awareness campaign will
require investment in the preparation of PIA materials (videos, posters, brochures, leaflets,
Q&A material etc.), media (TV, newspapers, social media, etc.). A professional approach is
needed to perform this. They will design, implement, monitor and guide the PIA campaign.
A significant public engagement activity
(PEA) will be required to support the
resurvey activity. The agency will design
the PEA strategy, prepare the PEA
material and provide guidance and
oversight. The PEA will be implemented
by a professional agency along with the
staff undertaking the resurvey.
1.5.Business plan for the Survey Department
The Survey and Land Records Department is one of the oldest Departments in Kerala and its
focus has been on resurvey, the preparation of land records for the Revenue Department and
the maintenance of the manual land records. This focus will remain in the Land Records
Modernization program, but as the program is completed the focus of the Department will
change to the ongoing maintenance and update of the spatial records. This will be a
fundamental change in the activities of the Department. This change in focus, the new
streamlined and computerised land records system and the implementation of private
surveyors will result in new requirements for the department in terms of the number and type
of staff that it will require going forward.
The provision of efficient, affordable land services is something that is valued by users and in
most jurisdictions Governments have typically been able to generate more revenue from user
fees and changes than the expenditure necessary to support the provision of land services,
including any investment in capital equipment. In many jurisdictions, Governments have
adopted a policy of cost recovery, under which the agencies providing land services retain
collected revenue to fund their operations. It is proposed that a business plan be prepared for
the Survey and Land Records Department. This business plan will pick up the changed role

and mandate for the Department, the optimal resources and arrangements to access these
resources and the appropriate financing arrangements.
Component 2.Development of ICT System for Land Administration
The objective of this component is to strengthen ICT systems in the land administration
sector, where the goal would be the establishment of an Integrated Land Information System
(ILIS) or a Single Window System. This component strongly links and depends on the results
of changes to the rules and policies and the business processes re-engineering etc.
This component will: (a) result in
implementation of ‘e-maps’ cadastre
software as an intermediate solution; (b)
implementation of an Integrated Land
Information System (single window portal)
and subsequent data migration; (c)
implementation of a full-fledged resurvey
software; (d) procurement of hardware, software and improvements of communication lines.
2.1.Implementation of e-maps
Kerala Land Records Modernization Mission with the technical assistance of National
Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed the e-maps application to support Survey and Land
Records department activities in establishing and managing a land cadastre database. E-maps
is successfully used in the other states with different names (BhuNaksha), adopting the local

context and providing features for creating and managing spatial part of a land parcel. In the
Kerala context, this application was also integrated with ReLIS and PEARL systems to
automatically exchange data about land records.
Considering that customization of e-maps for Kerala state is almost complete and e-maps is
introduced as a pilot phase in more than 70 villages (planned to launch in 87 digitally
surveyed villages). This makes sense to keep this solution as an intermediate step on the way
to the implementation of ILIS (single window system). It will play a backup role as well if by
any reason ILIS implementation fails.
This Sub-Component will support the deployment full-fledged e-maps application, including
additional modifications and improvements, identified by the Survey and Land Records
Department.
2.2.Implementation of Integrated LIS (single window) and data migration
This Sub-Component is a key and the most challenging element of the overall ICT
investment. Today there are at least three different systems involved in managing land
records – ReLIS, PEARL and e-maps. These three systems split land record into three pieces
– registration, survey and revenue, where the taxation database is the source of ownership
information. Although data exchange is implemented between these systems, it does not
guarantee full synchronization between respective databases and data discrepancies can be
found and produced. Moreover, conducting data analysis, completing land-related

transactions or providing centralized e-services makes it much more complicated than having
one integrated land information system, where complete land records are maintained.
This Sub-Component will support the implementation of an Integrated Land Information
System (ILIS), establishing a unified database of the land records (single truth). ILIS will
implement a seamless workflow of completing different land transactions, guaranteeing full
transparency of the process, record completeness, integrity, security and authenticity. This
development will also include implementation of a web-portal, providing various e-services,
interactive maps and useful statistics and Block chain assisted workflow. Development of a
mobile application to implement similar features of the web-portal is considered under this
Sub-Component as well. Implementation of ILIS has a strong dependency on business rules
and workflows.
Apart from ILIS development, data migration and purification (unification of different
datasets of three departments into single truth) will be done under this Sub-Component. Land
records must be collected from ReLIS, PEARL and emaps, merged, verified and loaded into
the new database.
2.3.Implementation of resurvey application
Today, resurvey activities are carried out using GPS equipment and GIS software packages at
the back office to produce the digital cadastre layer. Nevertheless, there are many manual
steps involved at different stages. Attributes, collected in the field, recorded first on paper
forms and then re-typed into the system, which in turn leads to duplication of efforts (double
capture) and potential errors, which may occur while re-typing. Generation of reports and

different printouts, data verification and other actions, require data pre-processing by
operators and/or manual triggering of these actions, which is not efficient speed wise and
lacks appropriate quality control
over the process and data.
Implementation of a proper
resurvey application would
significantly speed up the
process of resurvey and increase
data quality though automating
all key steps, starting from the
data collection in the field using
tablets and finishing with producing public display printings and records finalization, making
them active and valid in the cadastre system.
The resurvey application will be developed under this sub-component and it can be either a
new development or further modification and extension of the emaps application, which will
be used as the main cadastre system before introducing the new Integrated Land Information
System. After introducing ILIS, emaps can play a role of resurvey application only.
2.4.Procurement of hardware, software and communication lines
This Sub-Component will focus on strengthening ICT infrastructure, supporting other Sub-
Components of this project. The major procurement is expected for an Integrated Land
Information System, where powerful servers, storages, backup systems, network equipment
and required software will be needed.
In order to support resurvey activities, GPS equipment, hardware (tab, laptops, printers,
plotters) and software will be supplied under this Sub-Component. Required office equipment
and software is envisaged under this Sub-Component to make sure local offices are ready to
operate the new ILIS and have appropriate production facilities for the resurvey exercise.
This procurement will also include establishment or modification of communication lines and
local area networks (LAN), where such a need exists.
Component 3.Old record preservation

The objective of this component is to create a seamless digital cadastral map of Kerala by
restoring, updating, scanning of existing
records. The seamless cadastral map will
provide the spatial framework in the near-
term for the textual databases in ReLIS in
the Revenue Department and PEARL in
the Registration Department and in the
medium-term for an integrated land
information system that serves the needs of
the three Departments.
Resurvey under the program that
commenced in 1966 has only been completed in 909 of the about 1,664 villages in Kerala.
When the resurvey is completed in a village the land records are transferred to the Revenue
Department who record changes (“mutations”) in the land records. Some of these mutations
are changes in the land parcel dimensions (the sub-division or amalgamation of survey
numbers). These changes are being recorded by the Revenue Depart without sketches. As a
result, the land records from the resurvey held by the Survey and Land Records Department
are becoming increasingly out-dated.
There is accurate digital data for the 87 villages that have been surveyed with modern
equipment. The rest of the resurvey records are in paper format. Most of the villages where
resurvey has yet to be undertaken are in manual format and are generally in a poor or fragile
condition. These old records are the prime reference for the resurvey and work needs to be
undertaken to preserve, scan and digitize these records.
3.1.Testing and procurement of image base map for state
It is proposed that a state-wide, base image map be created using ortho-rectified, geo-
referenced high-resolution satellite imagery (HRSI). The primary and secondary network of
geodetic reference points will be used to provide the geo-referencing and a global digital
elevation model will be used to ortho-rectify the HRSI. There has not been good experience
in the use of image maps in Kerala, with poor registration of ground survey data to detail on
the image maps. These difficulties are probably due to the use of image maps with uncertain
processing for ortho-rectification and geo-referencing. It is proposed that ortho-rectified
HRSI be purchased over villages that have been surveyed recently with electronic total
stations (ETS) and that this imagery be geo-referenced with control provided by the Survey
and Land Records Department. Survey of India presented the use case of such imagery based

parcel map (vector map overlaid on top of imagery) for the resurvey works also to give a
realistic look and feel of the land parcels. Such ground reality based maps will give a clear
understanding and convince the public at the time of adjudications and promulgations
(evidence based survey).
The base image map will provide a spatial reference for:
a) the mosaicking and overlaying of the digitally surveyed data over the ground reality
picture (images)
b) Identification of chronological changes in the land parcels effectively (quarrying,
land filling, encroachments etc)
c) wider use by Government for other purposes like infrastructure projects and other
land administration programs
3.2.Restoration, scanning and archiving of the paper records
The existing survey records for these villages are held in the head office of Survey and Land
Records Department, with a copy held in the District offices. Many of these records are in
poor condition. A modern record room has been established in Survey bhaven for the records
for 7 districts. The records for the other 7 districts are in poor condition in old records rooms.
The survey records (settlement register only) held in 8 districts have been conserved and
digitized under the KLRMM program called ‘e-Rekha; project. Hence the rest of the
documents and maps to be conserved and shifted to the modern record rooms.

The old land records are important reference documents that provide a key reference for the
resurveys. It is important that the records be preserved, scanned and transferred to a new
modern record room. This work and the budget to do this work is included in the program.
Component 4.Development and Scaling-Up of an Efficient Resurvey Procedure
The objective of this component is the development, testing and scaling-up an efficient
resurvey procedure to complete resurvey for all villages in Kerala.
There are about 1,664 villages in Kerala. A program to resurvey all villages in Kerala started
in 1966 but resurvey has only been completed in 909 villages. The resurvey process has
evolved since 1996 but is largely seen as the responsibility of the Survey and Land Records
Department. The technical aspects in resurvey have been addressed by the Survey and Land
Records Department, but many of the issues, particularly those that result in complaints,
relate to problems in the land records that have been maintained by the Revenue Department.
There were significant complaints in the early stages and various strategies were adopted to
address this including the introduction of Janakeeya Adaalaths in 2008 with strong
participation by citizens and social institutions. Still there are issues with regards to resurvey
and that need to be addressed with a proper settlement mechanism.
4.1.CORS network
Since 2017 the Survey and Land Records Department has established a geodetic control
network in the WGS84 reference frame with 85 primary and 205 secondary control stations
that cover the state (with 30-40 kilometre and 10-15 kilometre spacing between primary and
secondary stations respectively). The Department has prepared a proposal to establish a
Continuously Operating Referencing System (CORS) network with 28 stations that cover the
state (with about 55 kilometre spacing). The CORS network will provide the framework for
more efficient GNSS surveys which will support the resurvey. CORS will also have wider
use in the community in the survey industry and more significantly in other industries such as
construction, transport, navigation, agriculture, mining etc.
a. Purchase of RTK Machines
CORS is a network of fixed GPS reference stations that broadcasts satellite based signal
corrections and Real Time Kinematic (RTK) rovers are the connected instruments that
receive such corrected GPS signals over an internet connection. Accuracy is increased in a
CORS network, because more than one station helps to ensure correct positioning and guards
against a false initialization of a single base station. This technology will bring more
efficiency, accuracy etc in the survey works.

The advancement of GPS technology like Real Time Kinematic (RTK) processing techniques
paved the way for eliminating the ETS based traverse works in today’s world. RTK uses a
fixed base station and a rover machine to reduce the rover's positional errors. The base station
transmits correction data to the rover on a real time basis. This system will avoid the post
processing correction work in the laboratory and which saves considerable time for the
surveyors. The map data generated from the field will automatically save in the cloud
infrastructure. In other words, the device which is capable of collecting RTK signals will get
the correction applied to the GPS value in the field itself. This device can replace the ETS
devices in the survey works which may greatly reduce the duration in completing survey
works. When CORS set up is established, RTK devices can be synchronised with CORS and
bring out quick results in survey works with highest accuracy.
One surveyor can directly measure the parcel bends by using an RTK device without
referring to any traverse stations with less manpower. Since the RTK device gets a correction
signal from CORS, every bend point will get the desired accuracy level. In addition to that
the envisaged system will greatly reduce many of the frameworks and preparatory works etc
in resurvey process. This may reduce the workload of field survey operations and may bring
advanced levels of GIS data for web enabled services. Quantity to be procured and it's
estimates are provided in the detailed estimate table.
b. Purchase of ETS Machines
This is a previous generation digital survey instrument. Electronic Total Station (ETS) are
planning to use where there is absence of satellite signal reception. It is assumed that about
20 percent of the area will be in this type where drone and RTK rovers are not feasible to
operate. Quantity to be procured and it's estimates are provided in the detailed estimate table.
4.2.Implementation of resurveys in 1550 villages in 3 years 8 months (200 Villages in
5.5 Months)
A key strategy in developing an improved resurvey process under the Land Records
Modernization program is the closer involvement of the Revenue Department in the
resurveys. The Survey and Land Records Department has to prepare a detailed proposal for a
new resurvey procedure. Key elements in this procedure may include:
a) software will be developed for the resurveys with a seamless software link with
ReLIS and PEARL

b) a public awareness campaign will be undertaken in a village/areas to encourage public
participation
c) a composite team of Survey and Revenue Department staff will be formed to collect
the textual data
d) a designated Revenue official shall be responsible for deciding the details that are
entered into Land Register, including tenurial and cadastral data and this official is to
issue guidelines for staff regarding tenurial issues
e) after the complaints and objections are addressed in a whole or part of the village, a
joint team will promulgate the resurvey
This new process, with detailed SOPs will be developed by a joint team of Survey, Revenue
and Registration Department staff with the umbrella of KLRMM. In addition to a refined
process and staffing a resource plan will need to be prepared for the procedure. Staff will be
required to:
a) plan, manage and oversight the activity.
b) consult with the community, raise awareness, answer questions and handle
complaints
c) go to the field to undertake field surveys and collect the evidence of rights.
d) manage the data gathered in the field, use and maintain the GIS and databases,
prepare material for public displays, record the receipt and handling of requests for
correction and objection and prepare the material for promulgation and transfer to the
Revenue Department.
Software and field tablets will be developed to support the resurveys. The SOPs, software and
the resourcing plan will need to be aligned to the objective of most effectively undertaking
resurveys. A strong monitoring and evaluation system will be established to capture
information on the resources and costs of the process and lessons from key critical areas. A
stakeholder workshop will be conducted in each village after the resurvey has been
completed with a broad cross-section of stakeholders. These workshops have the prime
objective of capturing lessons and experience and this information will be used to refine and
update the methodology and the arrangements for undertaking resurveys. In this phase a
composite use of technology like CORS plus RTK survey, drone based survey, imagery
based survey and regular ETS survey etc are to be tested.

In order to complete this mega task a series of activities are needed to be undertaken.
Important are advertising and Awareness, Purchase of Survey stones & Transporting,
Planting of Ground Control Points, Ayacut refixing (including stone transporting and
planting), hiring of contract surveyors and helper are also required. In addition to that for the
time effective work completion, hiring of vehicles for camp offices, setting up and basic
infrastructure for camp offices, upgradation of survey office infrastructure and purchase of
vehicles (JD,DD,AD) and stationary etc are found essential.
4.3.Design and implementation of public awareness campaign to support resurvey
A significant public engagement activity (PEA) will be required to support the resurvey
activity. This PEA activity will focus on the resurvey and seek to ensure that land-owners and
managers participate actively in the resurvey activity. The PEA will also support the key
stages in the resurvey (demarcation and survey, collection of evidence of rights, public
display, the making and resolution of requests for correction or objection, and final
registration, transfer of land records to the Revenue Department and distribution of titles and
RoR).
A professional agency to be hired to prepare the
strategy and they will design the PEA and
develop material for the PEA. Implementing the
PEA will require investment the preparation of
PEA materials (videos, posters, brochures,
leaflets, Q&A material etc.), media time (TV,
newspapers, social media, etc.). The PEA will be
implemented by the staff undertaking the resurveys with the external agency proving
guidance and advice.
Component 5.Project Management and Capacity Building
The objective of this component is to ensure that the Land
Records Modernization program is managed well, and the
activities undertaken under the program are managed by
experienced and well-trained staff who are having
sufficient domain knowledge and experience in cadastral
survey and mapping, GIS, cartography and other mapping
techniques.

5.1.Infrastructure for SPMU
A State Level Program Management Unit (SPMU) to be set up at the Survey directorate for
the day to day planning and monitoring of the program. A dedicated team of both industry
and in-house resources of the survey department is envisaged in the SPMU. Modern
amenities for project management, communication and VC room are essential for the
effective implementation. A separate budget is set apart for this purpose.
5.2. Resource Hiring for SPMU
A dedicated team of professionals (experienced hands from KLRM mission and survey
department and few new recruits from the industry) are highly essential to execute this
herculean task in a time effective manner. Experienced hands who are working under
KLRMM (survey division) are also to be taken exclusively to the SPMU so that their
professional experience and knowledge in the modern cadastral survey will be an asset for
this program. Staffs (3 nos.) are proposed in this proposal for the assistance and effective
execution of this mega program. Including department resources and professionals from
outside, a fully equipped project management team will be formed in the Survey Directorate
under Survey Director. Complete rollout of the program demands regional level project
divisions also for the effective project monitoring/reporting and management and that will be
considered in the later phases.
5.3.Capacity building and training
A comprehensive capacity building and
training program will be developed early
in the program. Funding to support the
implementation of this plan has been
included in the program budget.
Manpower deployment Plan
At present there are 1678 surveyors and
830 draftsman are available in the department. These are the grassroots level staffs who are
most essential for running this massive program. This program is planned within a 4 year
timeframe. In the normal scenario, only about 700 surveyors are utilized for the exclusive
resurvey works (existing practices. But whereas the massive scale resurvey works required a
dedicated team for the successful execution of the entire works. There is a shortage of staff in
this regard. In this connection apart from the district establishment staff (surveyors those who

posted under the revenue administration in districts for different work like LRM, pattayam
works etc), a pool of draftsman are also to deployed for the work execution. About 1700
survey staffs (including 1100 surveyor and 600 draftsman) are intended for this task. Though
the routine job of draftsman is scrutiny of records and related office works, this resurvey
program demands their services also as surveyor. In short, surveyor cum draftsman Post
integration is also planning through the execution of this program. Subsequent All the
supervisory staffs proportional to the above resources like Head Surveyor and Head
Draftsman are also to be given charge for the validation and publication of 9(2) notice of the
survey works. In short the Post integration of all the office and field category are essential
inorder to execute this task.

Chapter VII
ACTION PLAN
Methods and descriptions
CORS and RTK Drone and LIDAR technology ETS survey method
(60% area) (20% area) (20% area)
Team structure 1 surveyor + 1 helper 1 surveyor + 1 helper 2 surveyor + 3 helpers
Area to be covered by single team 4 Ha (survey)
1 Ha (demarcation and ground
truthing)
2 Ha (survey)
Average area of a village 1200 Ha
400 Ha (160 Ha by Department
Surveyor and 240 Ha by land
owners)
400 Ha
Number of staffs required for one village 5 Surveyors + 5 Helpers 3 Surveyors + 3 Helpers 8 Surveyors + 12 Helpers
Number of survey days
60 working days (2.5
months)
60 working days (2.5 months) 60 working days (2.5 months)
Preparatory works, Village boundary re
fixing, Govt. land re fixing etc.
Exhibit of records and appeal redressal 1.5 months 1.5 months 1.5 months
Total duration for the survey of one village 5.5 months 5.5 months 5.5 months
Average duration for the survey of one
village
5.5 months

ACTION PLAN FOR COMPLETING DIGITAL SURVEY IN 3 YEARS 8 MONTHS
Total Surveyors Required 16x200 Villages at a Time = 3200
Timeframe against manpower (Department Staffs) 1700 (1100 Surveyor + 600 Draftsman)
Timeframe against manpower (Contract Staffs) 1500 (Contract Surveyors)
Timeframe against manpower (Helpers) 4000 (20x200 Villages at a Time)
Surveyors required for the survey of one village in 5.5 months 16 (12 Teams)
Total villages to be covered 200 Villages in 5.5 months
No of villages can be covered in 11 months 400
Time duration for completing 1550 villages 3.75 years
● CORS and RTK are the latest technology transformations in the land survey program. Kerala intended to start the survey program by
utilizing drone, LiDAR and RTK technologies. As per the reports obtained from the neighbouring states, a survey out turn of 4
Ha/day/team is proposed here. Once it is implemented in the field and based on the success rate, any addition or subtraction in terms of
out turn can be arrived and will be implemented accordingly.
● Service of the contract surveyors and helpers will be strictly monitored and they will be used only for the field level survey works. If
there are areas where the department staff can render their services like post survey works (adjudication works, publications etc), to be
undertaken without the service of the hired manpower. In this way it is anticipated that the expenditure part can be minimized.
Possibilities of such areas can be explored in future once the digital survey program starts and gets feedback subsequently.

Project Estimate Part
Detailed Estimate for the digital resurvey of 1550 villages in 3 years 8 months

Phase 1
400 villages
Phase 2
400 villages
Phase 3
400 villages
Phase 4
350 villages
1. Policy, Institutional and Regulatory Development
1.1 Clear legal/regulatory statement on status of cadastral map and RoR 5,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000
1.2 Joint activity on policy, regulations, SOPs, capacity building plans 5,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000
1.3 Policy, regulations and SOPs for contract surveyors 5,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000
1.4 Public Awareness Campaign for improved land administration 2,00,000 2,00,000 2,00,000 2,00,000
1.5 Business plan for the Survey Department 1,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000 1,00,000
2. Development of ICT System for Land Administration
2.1 Implementation of e-maps 10,00,000 10,00,000 10,00,000 10,00,000
2.2 Implementation of Integrated LIS (single window) and data migration 20,00,000 20,00,000 20,00,000 20,00,000

2.3 Implementation of resurvey application 1,00,00,000
2.4 Procurement of hardware, software and communication lines
6,08,00,000

Item Qty Unit Rate Amount
Tab (For each
RTK machines)
Phase I
1,000 Nos 17,000 1,70,00,000
Laptop for ETS
works
200 Nos 75,000 1,50,00,000
A3 Printer
Colour (one
Each printer for
Districts) Phase
I
14 Nos 2,00,000 28,00,000
A0 Printer
Colour (one
Each printer for
Districts) Phase
I
14 Nos 10,00,000 1,40,00,000
A3 Printer B/W
(One each for
village) Phase I
200 Nos 60,000 1,20,00,000
3. Old record preservation
3.1 Testing and procurement of image base map for state 10,00,000 10,00,000 10,00,000 10,00,000
3.2 Restoration, scanning and archiving of the paper records 5,00,000 5,00,000 5,00,000 5,00,000
4. Development and Scaling-Up of an Efficient Resurvey Procedure
4.1 CORS network

Purchase of
RTK Machines
Phase 1
1,000 Machines 11,00,000 1,10,00,00,000
1,66,00,00,000

ETS Machine
Phase 1
700 Machines 8,00,000 56,00,00,000
4.2
Implementation of resurveys in 1550 villages in 3years 8 months (200
Villages in 5.5 Months)
1,63,69,60,000 1,54,29,60,000 1,54,29,60,000 1,54,29,60,000
Advertising and
Awareness
400 Villages 10,000 40,00,000
Purchase of
Survey stones &
Transporting
(400 villages X
500 stones)
2,00,000 Stones 250 5,00,00,000
Planting of
Ground Control
Points (GCP’s)
(400 villages X
20 Nos)
8,000 Nos 1,500 1,20,00,000
Ayacut re-fixing
(including stone
transporting and
planting)
1,00,000 Km 1,000 10,00,00,000
Contract
Surveyors (3200
- 1700 =
1500x12)
18,000 Nos 24,520 44,13,60,000
Helper (400
villages X 10
Helper X 10
months
40,000 Nos 18,390 73,56,00,000

Vehicle rent
(200 Vehicle X
12 months) (One
vehicle for one
villages)
2,400 Months 35,000 8,40,00,000
Camp office
expenses
(including rent)
(200 Camp X 12
months - One
camp for each
village)
2,400 Months 40,000 9,60,00,000
Basic
Infrastructures
for camp offices
200 Villages 50,000 1,00,00,000
Infrastructure
improvement of
DD/JD office
14 Offices 15,00,000 2,10,00,000
Infrastructure
improvement of
AD office
15 Offices 30,00,000 4,50,00,000
Purchase of
Vehicles for
JD/DD, AD
30 Offices 6,00,000 1,80,00,000
Stationary
charges
400 Villages 50,000 2,00,00,000
4.3 Design and
implementation
of public
awareness
campaign to
support resurvey
1,00,00,000 1,00,00,000 1,00,00,000 1,00,00,000

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