Digital land survey risks taking centuries, as only 274 mouzas surveyed since 2012
The Department of Land Records and Surveys says that at this pace, it would take many centuries to bring all mouzas in the country under the digital survey, as the country has a total of 58,590 mouzas.
The Bangladesh Digital Survey (BDS) has stalled due to inadequate planning, a lack of skilled officials, administrative inertia and a severe manpower shortage, putting the government's initiative to modernise and streamline land management at risk.
The government launched the modern survey in 2012 with the aim of making land management easier and more transparent. However, only 274 mouzas have been surveyed in the 14 years since the initiative began, averaging fewer than 20 mouzas a year.
The Department of Land Records and Surveys says that at this pace, it would take many centuries to bring all mouzas in the country under the digital survey as the country has a total of 58,590 mouzas.
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It highlighted the disappointing progress in a report, recommending recruitment of manpower through outsourcing to address the shortage, training relevant officials to improve their skills, and greater use of modern technology.
On 18 August, the department organised a seminar on the issue. The land secretary, an additional secretary of the Ministry of Land, and current and former officials of the land survey department attended the seminar, where the state of the Bangladesh Digital Survey was presented.
Speaking to TBS on 21 September, Md Mominur Rashid, director (Land Records) of the department, said the digital survey was launched with the goal of improving land management.
"But the digital survey has not progressed properly due to manpower shortages and administrative complications. Amin and surveyor positions have not been filled. Some recruitment processes have also been stalled because of court cases," he said.
He said a decision had now been made to recruit manpower through outsourcing and incorporate modern technology into the survey process.
"For this, a new project is being formulated," Mominur Rashid said.
He said a pilot project is currently underway in 34 upazilas across six districts with support from the South Korean government. The World Bank has also expressed interest in providing financial and technical support.
"The government has planned to complete the digital survey within the next 15 years," he said.
Why digital survey
With the aim of modernising land management, the government introduced the Bangladesh Digital Survey, replacing traditional survey methods with a hybrid approach based on satellite imagery, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, Electronic Total Stations (ETS), drones and aircraft, photogrammetry and geo-referencing technology.
A project costing Tk1,212 crore was undertaken to digitally survey all mouzas throughout the country.
The main objective of the project was to complete the cadastral survey of the entire country within a short period while reducing the need for repeated field surveys.
According to the project documents, once digital and geo-referenced maps are prepared, the need for future field surveys will be reduced. Unless major changes in land occur in an area due to natural causes such as river erosion or landslides, land records can be managed through partitioning and updating the digital maps. A new full-scale revisional survey would not be necessary.
Other objectives included making land management easier, more transparent, accurate and modern; reducing harassment related to land; reducing land disputes and litigation; preventing fake deeds and fraud; making ownership verification easier; and ensuring easy online access to digital khatians and maps.
Severe manpower shortage
The land records department has identified a severe manpower shortage and administrative inertia as the main obstacles to implementing the digital survey at the field level.
Of 7,632 approved posts, only 2,674 employees are currently working. This means 4,958 posts, or 65% of the total, remain vacant in the department.
Most of the key field-level positions – including surveyors, draftmen, kanungos, assistant and deputy settlement officers – are vacant, bringing field surveys virtually to a standstill.
The country initially had 10 zonal settlement offices, along with upazila settlement offices under them. Later, nine additional zonal settlement offices and their corresponding upazila settlement offices were established.
However, the Ministry of Finance has yet to approve the necessary posts for the newly established zonal and upazila settlement offices. As a result, manpower has not been recruited.
RTK technology proposed
To make digital surveys faster and more accurate, the department has proposed adopting the modern Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) surveying method.
RTK is a satellite- or GPS-based modern land surveying technique that can deliver highly accurate results in real time, with centimetre-level precision of around 1-2 centimetres.
Modern land and map surveying in the region began with Major James Rennell's survey in 1774-80. Trigonometrical surveys began in 1802, followed by mouza-based surveys between 1846 and 1878. The Cadastral Survey (CS) was conducted in 1888.
Following the abolition of the zamindari system, the State Acquisition (SA) Survey was conducted between 1956 and 1963. The SA Survey contained numerous errors and inaccuracies.
The Bangladesh Revisional Survey (BRS), also known as the BS Survey, was subsequently launched to correct those errors.
Finally, in 2012, the government launched the Bangladesh Digital Survey (BDS), introducing the use of drones, GNSS, RTK, ETS and satellite technology to conduct digital land surveys.
