Mumbai: Soon on Google, all you want to know about BMC

Praveen Pardeshi

In a bid to go beyond merely putting up information posters at local ward offices, the civic body is now tying up with Google to disseminate information on civic amenities in the public domain. People will soon be able to look for the nearest public parking lots and also keep an eye out for ongoing work on bridges and roads.

A team from Google met civic chief Praveen Pardeshi on February 20 to discuss the idea. An official from the Building Proposals Department, who was also present at the meeting, said that the information will be uploaded on the civic body's geographic information system after which it will be added to Google's base map. "There is a lot of information on the BMC's portal that isn't accessible to the public. With Google's help, information related to civic amenities can be given out to the public who can benefit from it," said the official.

While the initiative is still in the planning phase, he said that tentatively some of the information will be visible on Google maps and the rest will reflect as part of search results. "Apart from information about local ward offices, schools, and gardens in the area, we will also include real-time location of BEST buses, ongoing work as well as water logging spots," said the official.

Once completed, people will also be able to look up locations of toilets, water fountains, night shelters, bus stations, swimming pools, and even dilapidated buildings in the area. "In times of emergency, people don't know where to find a veterinary hospital or a municipal dispensary. Many people are not able to find cemeteries in their area and they don't know if it has an electric crematorium. Having this information will be helpful," said the official. He added that the contact details of department heads will also be shared so that people can file complaints with the relevant department.

"We have asked all departments to upload updated information onto the BMC's GIS. Once this process is complete, we will share it with Google and this should take a couple of months," the official said.

The BMC will have another meeting with the team from Google later this month.

Feb 20
Day the meeting between BMC and Google took place

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