Odisha bags Geospatial World Excellence Award-2018

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has bagged Geospatial World Excellence Award-2018 for successful IT application for tracking of mineral production, dispatch and value accrued on a real-time basis through its i3MS website-based software.

The award was given by Union Minister of State Science & Technology Y.S. Chowdray in the Geospatial World Forum Meeting held at Hyderabad recently.

It was attended by more than 3000 geospatial experts from 90 different countries of the World.  Dr Pradipta Mishra Senior Scientist Odisha Space Application Center (ORSAC) received the Award on behalf of Government of Odisha.

The GPS linked web-based software named i3MS has been designed by the scientists of ORSAC, Bhubaneswar under the guidance of Principal Secretary Steel & Mines Raj Kumar Sharma and CEO ORSAC Sandeep Tripathy and Director Mines Deepak Mohanty.

Chief Secretary and Chairman Odisha Space Application Center Aditya Prasad Padhi has congratulated scientists of ORSAC along with officers of Steel & Mines department for successful designing, application and use of this IT model.

Presently, the Steel and Mines department is watching the live movement of 43000 vehicles carrying minerals from production point to ports, railway sidings and end-user industrial units.

It may be pertinent here to mention that Govt of India has also applauded the outcomes of this IT intervention by Odisha and have recommended the model to be followed in other States.  All the stakeholders like lessees’, dealers and Govt departments have been brought on this portal.

It has also been integrated with RTO, Indian Railways, Commercial Tax, Ports and Treasury. The daily production and dispatch are being recorded on a real-time basis through this software.

All the mineral transporting trucks have been put under GPS surveillance and the roads, as well as mines, have been geo-referenced.  Geospatial Scientist Mishra said, “This is for the first time India that GPS devices have been fixed on a large volume of moving objects in the mining sector”.

Director of Mines Deepak Mohanty said,  “Till now 392 electronic weighbridges in 136 mines, 699 weighbridges and  325 end-user industries have been integrated with the system.  All e-permits and dealer licenses are being issued online through this software and issue of the manual license has been abolished”.