Following a 2002 4 Million Euro assignment to a joint venture between SCE (France) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bangalore Citizens and outside observers have been looking forward to one of the key deliverables: the DUSR (Digital Urban Spatial Repository) – a publicly accessible internet portal into all of the map data representing the city’s infrastructure, property cadastre and planning classifications. Direct representations to the BDA are so far being ignored. This blog sets out some of the factual material surrounding the issue and then asks some fundamental questions. Firstly some facts/information sources:
- BWSSB: Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board – Wikipedia. GIS setup 1999 – 2002: description: http://www.sce.co.in/pdfs/SCE_profile_Projects_BWSSB.pdf
- BMTC: Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation
- SEC :Socio-economic classification (Urban and Rural) see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEC_Classification_(India)
- SCE :Consultancy (http://www.sce.co.in/corp/) engaged by BDA and French Partnership to create the DUSR described here (PDF): http://tinyurl.com/18r
- BBMP: Bangalore (Bengaluru) Municipality http://www.bbmp.gov.in/ (purportedly holds boundary maps in GIS form)
- DC’s Office: Deputy Commissioner’s Office, Bangalore Urban District, Government of Karnataka: http://bangaloreurban.nic.in/deputy_commissioner.htm
- BDA: Bangalore Development Authority (is the Planning Authority for Bangalore Metropolitan area) http://www.bdabangalore.org/
- CDP: (Comprehensive Development Plan – every 10 yrs, prepared by BDA)
- NRSA: National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad. http://www.nrsc.gov.in/ supplied aerial photog. 2002 to BDA for the CDP
- SOI: Survey of India http://www.surveyofindia.gov.in/ completed ground survey of some 714 control points delivered to BDA 11/2003
- DUSR: Digital Urban Spatial Repository (part of MSDI see below) to be produced by the BDA. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/836434
- MSDI: Metropolitan Spatial Data Infrastructure (5 million euro project undertaken by SCE for BDA, 2/6/2003 – 1/6/2005) described here: http://www.sce.co.in/corp/images/stories/pdf/greaterBangalore.pdfhttp://www.sce.co.in/corp/images/stories/pdf/greaterBangalore.pdf
Information on SCE:
Groupe SCE is a fully owned subsidiary of a French MNC (www.sce.fr) specialising in the field of GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Major areas of expertise are GIS, LiDAR processing, CAD, Urban Planning and Software Customisation for GIS applications. Groupe SCE India Pvt Ltd was Incorporated in 2002 and based in Bangalore, (coinciding with the financial allotment by the EU of EUR 4 million to the BDA/SCE joint venture) is an end-to-end geospatial services provider with a manpower of over 125 personnel specializing in the design and creation of Geographic Information Systems, 3D modeling, LiDAR data works, image processing and IT solutions. Their main Indian office is in Bangalore.
BDA Annual Accounts 2008-2009 Audit Excerpt:
V) Capital Work in progress – Rs. 180.16 crore
- a) …
- b) Non-capitalization of work on CDP Revision, MSDI project which was completed during the year resulted in overstatement of work-in-progress by Rs. 26.64 crore and understatement of fixed assets by Rs. 22.64 crore and understatement of expenditure (depreciation) to the extent of Rs. 4.00 crore.
- The project is supposedly completed, but as part of MSDI there is no DUSR (which should afford all citizens of Bangalore a GIS based internet portal) – why has this not been delivered, when is it scheduled for? Is it fully paid for?
- SCE is a French based MCN – 4 million Euros is a lot of money – what was the tendering process; how did SCE get the work?
- Who at BDA was responsible for signing-off/approving the various pieces of work and where are these detailed?
- What are the ongoing/recurring costs for managing the MSDI and how was funding for this defined in the original project initiation document?
- Is MSDI now embedded inside BDA or will MSDI remain with SCE as a managed service?
- Are the MSDI and BWSSB data being held on the same GIS system? Seems logical, if so did the BWSSB funding dovetail in with that of BDA? If not why not?
- The BWSSB PDF document detailing the project: rather than detailing how the tendering process would work goes straight into detailing how every piece of GIS related technology is ESRI based…. why? ESRI products are notoriously expensive and would need full justification via detailed Business Requirements/Needs Analysis.
It strikes me that the project itself was open to minimal scrutiny and this combined with no evidence of a tendering process means its next to impossibel to establish whether value for money has been achieved. Here’s the biggest question: The EU paid for it… why? Isn’t Bangalore one of the wealthiest cities in India with companies like InfoTech who’s annual net income alone could pay for the MSDI 10 times over?
I intend asking my local MEP (Member of the European Parliament) about this project.
Musings from a Technocrat 