Mysuru: The second phase of capacity-building training under the NAKSHA (NAtional geospatial Knowledge-based land Survey of urban HAbitations) programme commenced this morning at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) on Lalitha Mahal Road in Mysuru.

This week-long training is being conducted simultaneously at five Centres of Excellence (CoEs) across the country, with ATI being one of the designated centres.

With India’s urban population projected to cross 600 million by 2031, the need for accurate, verifiable and easily accessible land records has become critical. The NAKSHA programme aims to address this challenge through a bold, technology-driven approach.

Over 27 Assistant Director of Land Records (ADLR)-level officers from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Puducherry are participating in the training sessions, which are being conducted by more than 20 expert trainers.

Today’s session focused on geospatial technologies in land governance and the legal and institutional frameworks enabling geo-referenced land records. It was led by S.P. Prakyathkumar, ADLR, Channapatna.

The first phase of the programme, aimed at training 160 master trainers from participating NAKSHA States and Union Territories, was completed last month. The objective is to promote precision land surveys using advanced technology to resolve the large number of land disputes pending in courts for decades.

As part of this training initiative, 304 officers from 157 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have been nominated for hands-on sessions. These officers will be trained in leveraging modern geospatial tools for effective urban property surveys.The programme aims to equip ULB officers and field staff with both technical and practical skills necessary to conduct high-accuracy land surveys under the NAKSHA framework.

Training modules include an overview of the programme framework, GNSS and Electronic Total Station (ETS)-based surveying, Web-GIS applications, land parcel mapping, and the legal and administrative dimensions of land surveys.

Implemented by the Department of Land Resources (DoLR) in collaboration with the Survey of India, National Informatics Centre Services Inc., Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation (MPSeDC), and five Centres of Excellence, NAKSHA is currently being piloted in 157 ULBs across 27 States and three Union Territories.

Besides ATI Mysuru, the other training centres are: Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune, Northeast Region Centre of Excellence, Guwahati and Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration (MGSIPA), Chandigarh.