The Bengal government wants to know the city better.

A team of experts and engineers from the land and land reforms department is ready to embark on an exhaustive exercise to prepare a plot-wise map of Calcutta. The existing smart map of the city is 200 years old. Work on the new one will begin from January 2004.

“It is the duty and responsibility of the land and land reforms department to maintain a record of each and every plot, not only in the city but also in the entire state. We admit that we have erred in not making any effort to gather details of plots and their users in the city,” admitted land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah.

“As almost all matters related to the city are looked after by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), nobody from the government had earlier paid much attention to the need of preparing a new map. Though late, we have taken up the task,” added Mollah.

The minister asserted that the new map would mark out the boundary of each and every plot. “We shall be able to get immediate information of any plot and its user from the map. Be it a private or a government plot, vested or disputed, the details would be available on the map, along with the ownership,” said Mollah.

Terming the task before his department “laborious and also hazardous”, the minister said the map could take a long time to complete. “We, however, expect to prepare a draft map within six months,” he added.

The government’s map move comes in the wake of several legal and other complications it has been facing over acquisition of land for any development project. “In a number of cases, we have found no land records. This creates confusion, causing a land dispute that invariably leads to court,” said a land and land reforms department official.

“If we had details of all the plots, including ownership facts, we would not have run into such problems while clearing the way for infrastructure development,’’ he added.

The need for a comprehensive map has also arisen, said officials, following the levy of land tax. “After the government introduced land tax for the city, a fresh assessment of plots has become essential,’’ another official added.

According to the plotting plan, there will be one master map denoting each plot and boundary, followed by enlarged, ward-wise maps.