Search engine major Google will now provide a unique identity code for every property within the city – residential, commercial, chawls and special buildings listed within municipal limits.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is in the advanced stage of inking an MoU with Google to help geotag every property in the city, such that a simple unique alphanumeric digital id will designate these properties to develop a ‘Unique Address System’ (UAS) for the city – similar to Google’s ‘Plus codes’.
Once the UAS code is fed into Google Maps, it will help individuals’ door-step delivery of food, and consignments, call ambulances and cabs, receive mail packages or even help people reach your address safely. These unique ids will be Amdavadis’ new ‘smart addresses’.
Sources in the AMC said that the civic body had approached Google six months ago with the proposal to map city properties. Talks are on for the last six months, in which “critical issues” like those related to data privacy are being addressed. AMC has demanded that an MoU can be signed only if Google’s India office is involved in the deal and not its California-based HQ.
Google now has couple of Indian cities like Pune and Kolkata mapped with its Plus Code addresses.
There are roughly more than 20 lakh properties of which, nearly 15 lakh are officially registered with the municipal corporation for property tax. UAN, or the property’s unique addresses, are based on a set of 20 alphanumeric characters. They will not be case-sensitive, and they exclude vowels. The AMC may involve Google to assign codes for properties in a particular ward on a pilot basis.
