The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is set to formulate a standardised and digital system to code and grade every internal road inside a village, with Punjab showing keen interest in implementing the pioneering move.
The existing system of road database in the country does not account for the internal village roads, with whatever information being available characterised by inconsistency, duplication and ambiguity, thereby limiting its effectiveness in ensuring precision, uniformity and ease of navigation.
“The absence of an interoperable framework has resulted in significant challenges for citizens, service providers, emergency responders, and administrative authorities, particularly in relation to last-mile navigation and service delivery. In view of these constraints, there is an imperative need to establish a nationally standardised, geo-coded village road coding and addressing system, which is precise, machine-readable and universally identifiable," the ministry said.
The ministry on Thursday released a public consultation document on ‘Intra-Village Road Coding and Grading’ system, and has invited suggestions from citizens, local communities, and other stakeholders before the system is finalised.
“We have sent the proposal to states/Union territories where the ministry’s SVAMITVA scheme has been implemented. We are yet to receive all replies, but the Punjab Government has shown keen interest in going ahead with the project," an official of the ministry said.
Bijaya Behera, Joint Secretary, said the vision of the initiative is that every road inside every village in India should have a unique and recognisable name and code, visible on a sign, traceable on a digital map, and linked to a national database.
“The objective is to bring ease of living to citizens in rural areas by ensuring that any service – medical, postal, administrative, or commercial – can reach any address within a village quickly and without confusion," he said.
V Uday Kumar, advisor to the ministry and working on the project, said each road will be tagged with a DIGIPIN code, which is a geo-spatial identifier developed by the Department of Posts.
“DIGIPIN provides the precise latitude and longitude coordinates of a location, making it machine-readable and compatible with navigation systems and digital maps. This ensures that every village road has an exact locational address in the digital world," he said.
He said Gram Manchitra, a geospatial planning and monitoring application developed by the ministry, will serve as the central digital platform where all road codes, DIGIPIN codes, LGD (local government directory) codes, and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) data will be brought together.
The proposed coding system will be made compatible with PMGSY data which identifies roads required for all-weather connectivity to eligible habitations — those with a population of 500 or more in plains, 250 or more in north-eastern and Himalayan states, and 100 or more in areas affected by left-wing extremism, as per Census 2011.
“Physical road signboards will carry QR codes, in line with the Ministry of Rural Development’s mandate for PMGSY roads. A person scanning the QR code on a signboard will be able to access road information, maintenance history, and navigation data via Gram Manchitra," Kumar said.
The ministry added that the step basically looks at designing a separate navigation system for villages with 10 times better image quality of village roads than what the Google offers.
