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The Mirzapur Municipal GIS |
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Computerisation of Records The heart of a municipal database is the property records. In Mirzapur these records were woefully out of date. The 23,950 property database had to first be located, computerised and restored.
A computerised tax billing system was set up to use the existing tax records. This made it possible to issue tax bills in the first year of the programme.
Updating Records Property records were updated through a property enumeration and assessment survey. During the enumeration, old city maps were used to locate all properties in the city.
Individual revenue wards were extracted from the city base map and detailed in the enumeration.
When the detailed maps were linked with the property tax records the first municipal GIS in India was established.
The enumeration identified 44 percent more properties than currently on the tax records. Property Tax Assessment The first use of the new GIS was in developing a methodology for property assessment. Information was available for each of the 610 neighborhoods in the city. However, there were too many neighborhoods to treat individually.
An efficient and effective approach to property assessment was to divide the 610 neighborhoods into 7 area types.
Other factors such as accessibility were added and easily checked through the GIS. Base property values and adjustment factors were established for the entire city.
Finally, a random sample of properties was checked by manual calculation to verify the formula assessment values.
The effort to fully implement a complete property assessment has been difficult and involves issues far beyond computer technology. The most important point is that without the use of GIS and statistical software it is almost impossible to conduct a scientific property tax assessment after decades of neglect. Despite the difficulties, the Mirzapur GIS has made it possible for the elected city council members of the assessment committee to fully evaluate the assessment formula and to recommend their own coding system to be used within that formula.
Infrastructure System Records Existing infrastructure records for water distribution and drainage were added to the new GIS.
This was the traditional approach of using existing paper records as layers on the GIS. Since the Mirzapur GIS was not an academic exercise, but a practical tool for implementing a property reassessment after 35 years, the street network was not initially the map foundation. After collecting the existing infrastructure information, the usefulness of a street network became apparent.
Infrastructure System Inventory and Survey While constructing a street network for the first time through surveys it was also convenient to assess the material and condition of streets and street drains.
It was then clear that the street network would serve a major role in integrating the urban infrastructure systems. Surveys of the water and drainage systems were conducted to update conditions of recently built and mapped facilities and to establish for the first time the map location and condition of the vast bulk of the municipal infrastructure system. It then became possible to think about the various urban infrastructure as a single system with relationships between the different elements.
Using the System for Managing Urban Infrastrcture The new infrastructure data base on the GIS was first used to extract a water distribution network for modeling.
Based on the results of this effort a programme of water supply improvement and regularisation of connections was envisioned. However, water connection records were badly maintained and decades out of date. These records were computerised and added to the GIS to reconcile with current property tax records. This was possible for only a part of water connections.
Other records had to be reconciled through field surveys. Maps and record printouts from the GIS were used by the often illiterate water department staff to updated information.
Updating records was the foundation for identifying the actions needed to regularise all water connections and to improve the water distribution system. A pilot programme to achieve this objective was planned and has been monitored on a regular basis through the GIS.
The infrastructure requirements for the Mirzapur Model City Programme are modest in terms of quantity, but generating the revenues for even these costs is very ambitious. Therefore, the project has assisted in planning some major, but limited investments for additional water supply improvement and related street drain rehabilitation.
The tight budget made it necessary to plan these investments with the greatest cost-effectiveness to as to benefit the maximum number of people.
For street drains this largely meant reconstructing the brick edging which had broken down over the years.
The GIS was used to identify the specific infrastructure links where the least cost integrated water and drainage improvements could be made.
Since the provision of tubewells is also included it is important that precautions be taken in selection of drilling sites. This is possible with the records of previous drilling which have now been added to the GIS.
The GIS has also been used to promote, support and monitor the community co-financing programme. The greatest visible achievements of the project have been in the reform of solid waste collection procedures and equipment. All the routes of vehicles have been added to the GIS and are being used to monitor and rationalise staff deployment. Now the GIS is being used to plan a new intervention to provide garbage cans to all houses along collection routes. The Future Potential of the System The scope for using the Mirzapur GIS is great. Already new building permits are being scanned and coded into the GIS to keep registrations and assessments up to date.
A joint effort with the Mirzapur Post Office to rationalise the street addressing system has recently been started with the entry of mail routes as a layer in the system. The district property ownership maps have been obtained and it is planned to add them and integrate their data with the municipal property registration and tax systems.
Tremendous scope exists for extension and benefit from the Mirzapur GIS in the city and throughout India. Visitors from all over the country routinely come to visit the project to find out how simple the approach is.
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