Telangana to Launch Statewide Land Re-Survey from Next Month
Hyderabad, June 19 (TNT): Telangana Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy on Friday announced that the State Government will undertake a comprehensive land re-survey programme from next month to create an accurate and dispute-free land records system across Telangana.
Addressing revenue officials through a teleconference, the Minister said the exercise would be taken up in phases covering all 10,954 revenue villages in the State.
In the first phase, the re-survey will be conducted in 2,240 villages, with 70 villages selected from each of the 32 districts, excluding Hyderabad.
He directed officials to complete all preparatory arrangements on a priority basis.
Srinivasa Reddy said the initiative aims to establish clear boundaries for every landholding, ensure accurate ownership records and provide greater legal certainty to farmers.
Describing the programme as a historic initiative, he said many areas in Telangana still depend on land survey records dating back to the Nizam era. Subsequent subdivisions, urbanisation and administrative changes have led to disputes and ambiguities in land ownership and boundaries.
The Minister said the government has identified 378 villages where survey maps are unavailable. Re-survey work has already been completed in five villages and unique Bhoodhar numbers have been assigned to land parcels there. Survey operations are continuing in the remaining villages using modern technology.
He said the government is replacing conventional survey methods with advanced technologies such as Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), rover-based survey equipment, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and QGIS mapping software.
The State has already procured 411 rover devices and plans to acquire another 400 shortly, he added.
Upon completion of the survey, every land parcel will be assigned a unique Bhoodhar number and landowners will be issued Bhoodhar cards. The survey data will be integrated into the Bhu Bharati portal for digital access and record management.
The Minister said the number of survey numbers in Telangana has increased from about 40 lakh in 1948 to 2.29 crore due to repeated subdivisions, necessitating a comprehensive modernisation of land records.
To support the programme, 5,520 licensed surveyors have been trained and deployed across mandals, while revenue villages have been grouped into clusters for effective monitoring.
Srinivasa Reddy said the re-survey would help reduce land disputes, improve transparency in land transactions and streamline registration and mutation processes.
He noted that under the Bhu Bharati Act, survey maps have been made mandatory for registration of agricultural lands, making the re-survey programme a key component of land administration reforms in Telangana.
TNT TS
