Hyderabad: The Survey of India’s AP Geo Data Centre at Hyderabad has been bifurcated. With the formation of Telangana state, the Centre decided to set up a new Geo Data Centre in Amaravati, the under-construction capital of residuary Andhra Pradesh while the existing premises in Hyderabad will go to TS. Highly placed sources in the Survey of India told DC that about 200-odd employees were given the option to choose the state of their choice in this regard and bifurcation process is in progress.
“The Hyderabad directorate of Geo Data Centre will be called Telangana Geo Data Centre,” sources said. There are four directorates functioning in the sprawling 165 acre campus of the organisation at Uppal here. The other three directorates located in Hyderabad like Institute of Surveying and Mapping (ISM), Southern Printing Group (SPG) and Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing (GISRS) will continue to function from here.
“The bifurcation process has already begun and employees have been given the option,” sources said. Survey of India, the national survey and mapping organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, is one of the oldest scientific departments in the country. It was originally set up in 1767 and has been assigned the task of national mapping.
From five directorates in 1950 mainly to take care of mapping needs of defence forces in North West and North East, the department has now grown into 22 directorates spread across the country to provide basic maps.
