File picture of road repair work in progress in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 19: The municipal corporation is planning to digitise records of engineering works, including those related to repair of roads and drains, to put maintenance job on the fast track.

Due to the lack of a proper database for engineering work, even for those related to maintenance, councillors are often told that the corporation has to check the land details before executing the work order.

“If checking the land records is to be followed every time and even for maintenance, a lot of time is lost only in finding the records. When the engineering section is through with construction, why the need for land records? This seems totally absurd and unnecessary. It only consumes more time and inconveniences people,” said Rental Colony councillor Samir Pradhan.

Chairman of the corporation’s standing committee (works) and councillor from Chintamaniswar, Amaresh Jena, admitted that the engineering section had no database of what they had done in the past.

“We have to do something on this account and at a meeting three days ago, we requested senior corporation officials to go for it at the earliest. If a computerised database is made, it can be accessed at the click of a button,” said Jena.

An engineer of the civic body admitted that there was a need for the database as the present process took at least 15 to 20 days more when an engineering work is referred to the land section for clearance. In practice, whenever an engineering work is notified, it has to pass through the land section to check its legality.

Damodar Mohanty, a resident of Jagamohan Nagar said: “When the engineering section has already done a work in the past, why do they need a clearance to carry out maintenance? There should be a digitised database so that can be accessed whenever necessary.”

A senior official in the land section also admitted that while the corporation’s records of all land, houses, buildings, kalyan mandaps and markets are available with the office, the engineering section has no records of the works executed.

Newly-appointed additional commissioner D. Brundha said: “We are going to keep the records of the engineering work from this year and it would be through tools of information technology so that whenever necessary, an authorised person can check the database and make a reference.”

Sources said the new process would reduce the time to check the land records. Though the tool is yet to be finalised, it would be based on remote sensing or geographic information system so that it can be user friendly.”