GHMC to revive digital door numbering project from cold storage

Hyderabad: The GHMC's digital door-numbering project, which has been kept on the back burner for two years, is likely to be revived with the corporation planning to invite fresh tenders and complete the project within six months.

Officials claim that the 'Unique Smart Addressing Solutions for Urban Dwellings,' later renamed Aadhaar-Digital Door Numbering (DDN), which assigns unique identification numbers to all properties in place of existing house numbers, will not only increase transparency in property tax collection but will also improve bill collector accountability at the field level.

An official claimed that the corporation had constituted a committee with the commissioner and director of municipal administration (CDMA) at the head for the purpose. If all goes as planned, the project will contribute another Rs 600 crore to the GHMC kitty by bringing unassessed properties into the tax net.

It will also provide a one-stop solution for accurately collecting power and water bills. An official said it could help weed out bogus voters.

The committee, which was formed a few months ago to study door numbering patterns used in other cities and consider proposals from various vendors for the formation of rules, includes senior officials as well as representatives from the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) and Osmania University.

According to a senior GHMC official, the corporation was only collecting property taxes from 14 lakh of the city's 24 lakh households because of inaccurate house-numbering.

According to him, the process includes gathering high-resolution latest satellite images, processing images to identify unique properties after field verification by GIS teams, and tax inspectors by concerned deputy commissioners.

The project was initially proposed in 2007 with the formation of the GHMC, pilot projects were conducted in Baghlingampally in 2010, and Domalguda and Gaganmahal in 2015. They failed to take off for various reasons. The assigned numbers were rarely used for any purpose, let alone finding addresses.

In 2017, the project failed to take off owing to a bidding war that resulted in a court battle. When the GHMC invited tenders for the second time, there were no takers. The corporation has once again floated tenders in 2017 and took up a pilot project in Moosapet under the Unique Smart Addressing Solution for Urban Dwellings.

The corporation decided to integrate Aadhaar with digital house numbers in 2018, renaming the project Aadhaar-Digital Door Numbering (DDN), and a geo-tagging-based seven-digit code was finalised. However, the project has been shelved for unknown reasons.

The GHMC has made countless futile attempts to enhance property tax collection. In 2016, it launched a "Tsunami Survey" to re-verify 1 lakh non-residential properties that paid less than Rs 1,200 in property taxes. The operation did not yield the anticipated results since bill collectors were found to be working hand-in-glove with property owners to commit irregularities. Apart from that, officials stated that the project has been put on hold due to a lack of coordination from other line departments and political influence.

GHMC's one-stop solution

> GHMC intends to track every property using a unique number.

> GHMC had undertaken the project on a pilot basis in Baghlingampally, Gaganmahal, and Domalguda, but it was shelved for various reasons.

> In 2017, the GHMC issued tenders for a pilot project in Moosapet under the Unique Smart Addressing Solution for Urban Dwellings, which was later renamed Aadhaar-Digital Door Numbering (DDN).

> A geo-tagging-based seven-digit code was finalised, but the project was put on the back burner.

> The project aims to raise Rs 600 crore for the corporation by bringing unassessed properties into the tax net, and will also help in collecting power and water bills accurately and filtering out bogus voters.