Bengaluru's tax defaulters, beware! BBMP planning to use drones to survey properties

New Delhi: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is planning to install drones in order to conduct survey, 3-D map buildings and verify property owners' claims during the payment of tax. 

The approach has been included in Bengaluru's smart city planning report and will soon be pushed for the Centre's consent. The initiative, which includes mapping, is expected to upgrade the entire system of property tax collection. 

"Three dimensional (3-D) mapping will help us form a more realistic documentation of the properties in the city. Clear images will help us check violations that property owners may resort to. We will prepare a detailed project report and call for agencies to help us in surveying the properties using drones. Drones can also get us images from congested areas which are a problem during manual or machine-supported surveys," The Times of India quoted an official as saying.

The 3-D mapping project is an add-on approach of the civic body that is likely to evolve a GIS-enabled property tax collection as well as the information system. This move was initiated after the BBMP and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) jointly discovered nearly 19 lakh properties that use spatial mapping. Following this, unique digital identification numbers will be provided to respective properties.

Distinct survey of high-end properties like malls and tech parks has been taken into consideration, according to a standing committee member on finance and taxation. 

"A digital survey report of all malls, tech parks, and major industrial hubs will be prepared. This is also to trace property tax defaulters as we have found that many of them have undervalued their property tax in the self-assessment scheme," TOI quoted him as saying.