Bhubaneswar: Odisha has won the ‘India Geospatial Excellence Award’ along with Tata Trusts for technological innovation in empowering urban poor by providing land rights through the ‘Jaga Mission’.

The award is conferred for exemplary usage of geospatial tools in various fields (Governance, Infrastructure, Public safety, Emergency response, Utilities, Design and Engineering, Environment, Agriculture, Mineral Exploration, Transportation, Business Intelligence, Insurance, Disaster Management, Smart Cities, Land information, Forestry, Water resource management).

The India Geospatial Awards held at Hyderabad has been organised by Geosmart Media and Communication.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik took to Twitter to congratulate the State housing and urban development (H & UD) department for this achievement.

“It further strengthens our resolve to transform urban slums into livable habitats @HUDDeptOdisha,” the CMO’s tweet read.

“Using drones for survey and drone ortho images for settling the land rights has been the highlight of Jaga Mission. The drone survey of 1,886 slums in 109 towns was completed within four months under this project,” a senior official of the H & UD Department said.