Chief minister Nitish Kumar would launch the hybrid land survey in 13 districts using aerial photography and digital global positioning system on Wednesday.

Once the survey is complet, land maps and records would be made available online. This would help people get the land possession certificate easily from Kisan Suvidha centres and use it for applying for loans and other purposes.

Announcing the launch at a news meet on Tuesday, the secretary of revenue and land reforms department, Hukum Singh Mina, said: “Chief minister Nitish Kumar would launch the hybrid land survey in Surajgarha block of Lakhisarai district on Wednesday through video conferencing from the state hangar in Patna.” The first phase, during 2013-14, would cover 13 districts including Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Siwan, Purnea, Katihar, Kishanganj, Araria, Patna, Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas and Kaimur. Another 13 districts would be covered in 2014-15.

After the aerial photography, land maps would be integrated with updated data collected manually by ground staff, who would work in co-ordination with the local administration. The project, estimated to cost Rs 578.57 crore, would be jointly funded by the Centre and the state government. The project is expected to be completed in three years covering 34 districts.

The process of the land survey in Jamui, Banka, Bettiah and Nawada is given to the state department of environment and forest, since these districts comprise forest areas. The survey in these districts will be done using digital global positioning system. Three agencies — IL&FS Technologies Limited, GIS Consortium Pvt. Ltd and IIC Technologies — have been selected to conduct the aerial survey.

The last survey in the state was done using traditional techniques between 1888 and 1915 and corresponding land records were prepared.