Morung Express News
Kohima | June 17
The Officers’ Hill Youth Organization (OHYO), on June 17, launched the first colony Geographic Information System (GIS Map), an online app website with a digital database at Ura Hotel, Kohima.
The map is a first initiative in Nagaland to enable smart urban planning where users visit www.nagalandaddress.in to access the location of houses in the Officers’ Hill Colony, Kohima.
Termed as a ‘zero budget community project’, the mapping was completed using the human resource available within the colony.
The website was officially launched by Kohima DC Rajesh Soudararanjan as the Chief Guest, and Guest of Honor, Khrielakuo Sekhose, Chairman, Officers’ Hill Colony Council.
As the concept of maps is completely new to Naga society, outsiders view Kohima as a “giant slum for its unplanned urban set up,” said Er. Yanpvuo Kikon - the brainchild behind the project necessitating the mapping.
Pointing out the futility of house numbers if it does not serve the purpose, Kikon noted that house numbers are of little help if the numbers cannot be used to find out the House number in the map.
How was the GIS mapping created?
To solve this, a GIS mapping team of 22 members were formed who identified 996 households in the colony and the mapping was completed in three weeks.
While idea for the mapping was introduced by Er. Yanpvuo Kikon, the project was a joint effort with Kikon as the technical consultant; OHYO president Keneisezo; executive member Metevizo Sophie; Project Director of GIS and Remote Sensing Centre Nagaland, Er. Mathung Kithan along with 20 youth volunteers in the colony.
With the help of the GIS department which provided a drone image of the colony, the youth volunteers visited households to physically mark the latitudes and longitude of each house.
Further a digital database was created using mapping coordinates and integrated with the Google earth software.
Besides the easy access for citizens to locate places, the GIS mapping will also benefit the police, administration, city planners as well as enable convenience of delivery of commodities.
According to the OHYO, the initiative aims to provide a solution to the challenges faced by citizens, businesses and Government in an unplanned and unorganised city like Kohima. The initiative was conceptualised over the existing house numbering system with a vision to use available GIS mapping technology.
Kohima DC Soudararanjan said termed the GIS mapping initiative as “a model for Nagaland,” and believed that it will ‘definitely prepare for the Smart City we are aiming for,’ and called for building the initiative into a synergy between what “we have established today and what we will establish tomorrow.”
