All city shops to be enumerated under GIS mapping, property survey

A Chennai Corporation official said that the drone survey of the entire city has already been completed under the GIS mapping project to assess the buildings in Chennai. “As a part of the GIS survey, we are carrying out a door-to-door survey to identify buildings that are unassessed for property tax,” he added.

When the civic body officials visit the buildings to assess the size and usage of the property, they are also verifying trade licences of the commercial establishments and also the number of persons employed in these establishments. There are more than 12 lakh buildings in the city and the civic officials would visit all the buildings.

Officials believe that the city Corporation’s income from property tax and professional tax collection and trade licences would increase after the completion of the GIS mapping project.

The official explained that the survey would reveal the number of professionals in the city limits and the move will also increase the professional tax collection apart from property tax. The civic body had started the GIS-based property survey in November 2017.

The door-to-door survey, which was undertaken after completing the drone survey of the city, has been completed in 120 wards. “The survey is going on in the remaining 80 wards. Once the survey is completed, we will get an exact number of shops functioning in the city. The shops that are functioning without licences will be forced to avail the licences to ensure accountability,” the official said.

A rough estimation by the civic body suggests that there are more than a lakh shops in the city, which ought to obtain trade licences from the civic body. However, as per the official records, only 75,000 shops are functioning with proper licences.

Even though the civic body started the GIS mapping project basically for property tax assessment, several civic amenities, including public toilets, parks, water bodies and civic body’s properties, have been mapped under the project.