Digital resurvey set to miss deadline

Time of India

08-06-2025

T'puram: Three years into Kerala's most ambitious land governance reform to date, the state's digital resurvey project aimed at digitally mapping all land parcels across 1,550 villages remains only partially realised, with completion hovering around one-third of the total target.
According to documents prepared by the survey and land records department, accessed by TOI, a total of 639 villages were taken up under the first three phases but survey activities were completed in only a fraction of them. In terms of area, the resurvey covered just over 4.09 lakh hectares of the estimated 10.3 lakh hectares planned across all phases.
This flagship initiative, launched under the Rebuild Kerala Initiative with a projected outlay of Rs 858cr, is being implemented using advanced technologies, including drones, RTK rovers, robotic total stations and GIS-enabled platforms all aimed at resolving long-standing issues of boundary conflicts and outdated land records.
Yet the journey to this point was anything but straightforward. The first resurvey attempt in the state in 1966 was left incomplete and the second attempt in 1996 too was abandoned midway.The current initiative was framed by learning from the past failures, with institutional reforms and inter-departmental mechanisms built in to avoid previous pitfalls.
The project was formally rolled out in three stages. The first phase of 200 villages began on Nov 1, 2022, followed by a second phase, also comprising 200 villages, which was launched in Oct 2023.
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A third phase involving an additional 200 villages was initiated subsequently. Of the 639 villages across these three phases, only 99 villages from the second phase and six from the third reached the milestone of publishing Section 9(2) notifications under the Survey Boundaries Act, indicating completion of the critical verification and public display stages.
District-level performance reveals a highly uneven landscape.
Thrissur leads the state with surveys completed in 60 of 130 villages, while Kannur completed 40 of its 95 villages. In other districts like Ernakulam, Kollam, and Kottayam, about one-third of villages were covered. However, progress in Wayanad and Idukki remains low, at just 20% and 21% respectively. Thiruvananthapuram completed surveys in only 35 of the 120 villages.
Malappuram, Kozhikode, Palakkad, and Kasaragod also fall below the state average in terms of completion rate, pointing to delays that may stem from local terrain challenges, staffing shortages, or coordination issues.
While the govt succeeded in fully deploying all survey machinery — including 1,500 RTK units and 200 RTS devices procured through a six-lot tender — workforce mobilisation remains incomplete. Out of the proposed 1,593 surveyors and 2,500 helpers to be hired on contract, only 1,338 surveyors and 1,967 helpers were brought on board so far. The rest are being recruited in phases through the employment exchange system.
With only 105 villages reaching a critical publication stage, the mission remains at a crucial midway point. At the current pace, the digital resurvey is in all likelihood set to miss its target. The goal of completing all 1,550 villages by Nov 1, 2026, appears increasingly unrealistic and may remain a distant dream unless drastic course corrections are made.