Digital Telephone service has replaced all analogue telephone service few years ago. This replacement has done some financial advantage too. Digital topographic map, which is now under preparation, can save at least Taka 374 crore in a year, according to a recent study of Survey of Bangladesh (SOB), the national surveying and mapping agency.
The study said the digital topography maps can be used in
field of communication, agriculture, infrastructure development,
enforcement of law and order, disaster warning, defense,
engineering and establishing e-governance for expediting work as
well as reducing activation cost in a large scale.
Of Taka 374 crore, the SOB study estimated that
transportation sector can save highest amount Taka 98 crore in a
year followed by electricity Taka 55 crore, health and population
Taka 41 crore, Rural development Taka 39 crore, physical
planning, water distribution and housing Taka 36.5 crore and
Agriculture Taka 30.16 crore.
The study also estimated that the total economic benefit
would be Taka 1890 crore in a year, if indirect economic affects
were accumulated with the direct benefit of the upcoming new
digital map.
Considering the increase of demands of new maps, the SOB has
decided to take a project under ‘Improvement of Digital Mapping
System (IDMS)’ programme to prepare a new 1:25,000 scale digital
topographic maps covering whole territory and 1:5,000 scale
digital topographic maps covering five major cities.
Japan government has decided to support this project under
its technical cooperation programme named ‘Bangladesh Digital
Mapping Assistance Programme (BDMAP) to be ended in March 2012,
Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) Bangladesh Dr Takao Toda told BSS today.
For both public and private sectors, statistic data
especially geographic information like topographic maps is the
fundamental need for planning and implementation of various types
of development projects, he said.
Official source of SOB said the existing 1:50,000 scale
national base maps covering whole territory of Bangladesh, have
been prepared at approximately 50 to 60 years ago.
In this backdrop, the SOB had decided to take the initiative
to set up six permanent Global Positioning System (GPS) stations
in six districts by next year which will help to covert all maps
in the country into digital format with creation of a geo-
database, it said.