Bhubaneswar, Feb. 9: Bhubaneswar Development Authority has decided to maintain a database of land encroachment in the city.

The development authority has approached the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to come up with software for online registration of encroachments.

An official of the development authority said that the NIC had been requested to develop the software with GPS tagged photographs. The general administration (GA) department, along with the development authority and the NIC, would collaborate to carry out the work.

“As of now, records related to land encroachment are being maintained manually. But with this new software, we will be able to retrieve the details of encroachment and eviction quickly,” said a senior official of the development authority.

During the meeting of City Management Group in January, development commissioner Injeti Srinivas had also asked the officials of the development authority and water resources department to evict encroachments on natural drainage channels on a priority basis.

The 10 natural drainage channels in the city have witnessed encroachments on various occasions leading to artificial flood during rains.

The recent example was the encroachment on natural drainage channel No. 4 near the Regional Plant Research Centre. The encroachment had led to waterlogging inside Ekamra Kanan, one of the major attractions of the city, for nearly one month.

Later in November, the authorities had conducted an eviction drive to remove the obstruction from natural drainage channel No. 4.

During the meeting it was also decided that narrow strips of land that do not have any alternative use may be given to adjacent plot owners as these spaces become vulnerable to encroachment.

“It was observed that in many plotted schemes of the development authority and the Odisha State Housing Board, narrow strips of land have been left out. This matter should be settled with adjacent plot owners for which policy decision may be taken by the competent authority,” said an official of the housing and urban development department.

The development authorities have carried out a number of eviction drives in the recent past. The recent was demolition of a bar-cum-restaurant, and a prime landmark at Jayadev Vihar for allegedly encroaching on adjacent government land.

“With the database, we will keep all the details related to land encroachment and subsequent eviction drives to free the land from encroachers,” said a development official.