News agency PTI reported on Tuesday that India had initiated a project to create a digital map the country with a resolution of 10 centimetres. The project will use drones and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and big data.

The task was taken up by the Survey of India, part of the Department of Science and Technology a few months ago, and it is expected to be completed in two years.

"We are equipping them (Survey of India) with the latest technologies like drones, Artificial Intelligence, big data analytics, image processing and continuously operated reference system", said the department's secretary, Prof Ashutosh Sharma to PTI on Monday

Once the project is completed, the data will be available to citizens and Gram Panchayats and local bodies, empowering them to use it in decision making and planning process. The survey is currently in progress in Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra and the Ganga basin.

"The entire Ganga basin from the beginning to the end, 25 km from either side of the banks is being mapped with an accuracy of 10 cm," said Prof Sharma while stressing the need to have such a digital map.

"Even today we don't have a digital map of India of sufficient accuracy, but this (the new digital map being prepared) is (going to be) the basis for everything you do, whether we have to lay down train tracks, lay a road, put up a hospital, cleaning up Ganga, cleaning up Cauvery or any development and planning," Sharma added.