GIS@development November 2002: "Aamchi Mumbai!"

Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and now Mumbai. The Eicher Good Earth continues its mapping journey. Encouraged by the tremendous response from the users for the previous City Map guide of Bangalore, it has now created and published the Mumbai city map.

The city of Mumbai, originally consisted of seven islands, namely Colaba, Mazagaon, Old Woman’s Island, Wadala, Mahim, Parel, and Matunga-Sion. This group of islands, which have since been joined together by a series of reclamations, formed part of the kingdom of Ashoka, the famous Magadha Emperor of India, around the third century BC. The empire ebbed, leaving behind some Buddhist monks and the deep-sea fishermen called Kolis, whose stone goddess, Mumbadevi, gave her name to the modern metropolis.

Led by Lt Gen S M Chadha, former Surveyor General of India, the professional cartographers have successfully accomplished the task of generating, compiling, updating and validating the Eicher city map of Mumbai. They have used India’s own high-resolution imagery IRS-IC to generate the maps and have also correlated it with the existing detailed colony and municipal plans. With the first six pages dedicated to the keys to the Eicher city map pages and then the guidelines on how to use the map book it has become more user friendly than ever before. The Index page clearly demarcates the different categories such as Roads, Cinemas, and Clubs etc. with different colours for the easy and quick understanding. A comprehensive legend and abbreviations are also given.

The initial pages of the map book throw light on the history of Mumbai, the tourist places and not forgetting the Bollywood. It also shows the places around Mumbai, which are worth visiting. In addition the location all of the districts, towns and localities, it also depicts the location of registration offices, milk booths, complaint offices for utilities and municipal services, etc. and is detailed down to building names and house numbers. It has dedicated pages for Nariman point & Mantralaya, Church Gate, Fort and Ballard Estate, Dhobi Talao, GamDevi and Tardeo and Dadar

The Map book suffices the need of a daily commuter or tourist as well as of the government organizations. Maps being the building block of a modern society, it aims at the creation of high-quality maps. Keeping in mind about the daily commuters, it also contains a take away free route planner, which includes Mumbai and Navi mumbai (Thane, Bhayandar, Uran, Virar & Vashi) as well. As the mapping journey of Eicher continues, so continues its aim of increasing the map reading habit and creating map awareness amongst the people. Price at Rs 250/-, it is a worth buy.

Arpita Das,
arpita@GISdev.net

“We believe that the Potential future areas will be integration of mobile Technology with GIS and LB services”, says Sanjay Govil, Director-IT, GIS, Cartography and Group CIO in an interview with GIS@development

What are the main Eicher Products?
The main Eicher products are: Eicher City Map Delhi; Eicher City Map Chennai; Eicher City Map Bangalore; Eicher City Map Mumbai, Good Earth City Guide Delhi; Walking with the Buddha: Buddhist Pilgrimages in India; Delhi Tourist Map & Guide; Speaking Stones: World Cultural Heritage Sites in India; Good Earth City Guide Varanasi; Road Maps of Delhi and Chennai; Good Earth Travel Guide Sikkim. Forthcoming publications are City Maps of Navi Mumbai and Kolkota; Road Maps of Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore; a black and white version of City Map of Delhi.
Do you find there is enough market for Eicher maps?
In India, map culture is still evolving. People want to use both static and live maps. There is a good market with residents of the cities, business communities like Real Estate firms, Architects, Pizza outlets, Tourists, etc. However, to tap the market to its optimum, there is a need to create awareness about maps and their potential. Many people are still not aware what a GIS solution can do for them.
What competition are you facing?
While there are competitors in different markets and segments, our USP is quality, level of detail and up-to- date data.
What are your key GIS activities?
Eicher is offering GIS solutions on Routing and Logistics Management, Sales Planning and Analysis and Infrastructure Development and GIS. We are working closely with Delhi Transport Corporation.

We are already offering our services successfully to various call centres. As a result, they are able to save around 15- 17 per cent of their expenses especially on transportation, which is a considerable amount.

Today users need more and more solutions on GIS. We believe that the potential future areas will be integration of mobile technology with GIS and Location Based Services. It is going to be largely driven by market trends and customer needs. Business models are being developed. In this context, we are working with technology providers.
Digital solutions are more vulnerable to copying. How to deal with copyright violation?
It is true that digital solutions are more vulnerable to illegal copying. Hence, at the moment we are focusing only on the business to business model through our website. However, we are yet to get a good response. The problem is of mindset. Anything on Internet is expected to be free. Sustainable business models are still evolving.

As far as copyright violation is concerned, whenever it comes to our notice, it is pursued aggressively. In India, there are sufficient rules and laws to deal with the issue, however there are problems in their implementation. The fortunate thing happening is that legal fraternity is getting more and more aware of its implication.

“We have used the latest high-resolution satellite imageries and lay out plans of various colonies” tells Lt Gen (retd) S M Chadha, Adviser, Eicher Goodearth Limited

First Delhi, then Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and many more. The journey continues. Please tell us how it all started?
It all started in 1992 - 93. Mr Vikram Lal, our principal shareholder wanted to give Delhi a map of world class standard. It was his dream, which he was nourishing for 20 years. I presume the long wait was for me - it was in my stars. When he offered me this opportunity, to do what I love to do, I happily accepted his offer. It was decided to bring out a product of the highest quality. After the Delhi Map was out, Delhi-ites and the media acclaimed it. There and then, Mr Lal announced that Eicher would bring out City Maps of other Metros too.
What are the factors you kept in mind while conceptualising Eicher Delhi Map?
While conceptualising, we kept four factors in mind: First of all, it has to be user-friendly. Secondly, it should cover the entire contiguous urban sprawl, which included Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. Thirdly, it should meet the needs of the user i.e. the Dellh-ites, business community, tourists, etc. The fourth point was that it had to be up-to-date.
What problems you faced during the process and how you managed them?
All cartographers base their maps on government maps, be it in UK or USA. However, we could not base it on SoI maps due to two reasons. Firstly, SoI maps didn’t have the amount of details we wanted and secondly SoI only allows one to publish maps on scales smaller than the scale of the SoI Map on which it is based. The other problem we faced was that all the streets of Delhi were not named, so we decided to landmark even house and block numbers.. We decided to use the latest high-resolution satellite imageries and lay out plans of various colonies. For Delhi, we collected over 800 lay out plans. Thereafter we carried out systematic and comprehensive ground surveys covering the entire area.
You might be having different experiences while working in different cities. Can you share them with our readers?
Each city has its own unique characteristics. These had to be analysed and catered for. In Bangalore and in Chennai, the road network is systematically named. Mumbai has very good Municipal Ward Maps up to 1: 4,000 scale. For Mumbai we used IRS 1C and LISS-III FCC imageries, married the two to extract more information. We used both hard and soft copies. We used image enhancement techniques to enhance resolution and filters to take care of noise, etc. We took around 4 years to complete the Eicher City Map of Mumbai.
What clearances you need to have from Government of India before publishing your map products?
In Mumbai we had to take two clearances. One was required from the SoI as it involved the Coastlines of India and the othe from the Ministry of Defence.
What procedures you adopt to update the maps?
When we bring out the next edition we take care of updates such as new flyovers, new shopping complexes, etc. But say, if new areas are to be incorporated, then entire surveys are carried out afresh.