Advisor to Governor, K Vijay Kumar, today inaugurated newly constructed office complex of J&K State Spatial Data Infrastructure (SSDI) in Bemina here. He also launched the beta version of the Geo-portal ‘ssdi.jk.gov.in’.

The State Spatial Data Infrastructure (J&K State Geo-portal) has been established to create infrastructure for availability of and access to organized spatial data and use of the infrastructure at Community, Local, State, Regional and at National levels. The Department of Ecology, Environment & Remote Sensing is the implementing agency of the project in the State.

Head & CEO NSDI P S Acharya, PCCF J&K Suresh Chugh, PCCF/Director EE&RS B Siddhartha Kumar, Director Soil & Water Conservation P K Singh, Director SFRI Om Prakash, Chief Wildlife Warden Suresh Gupta, Additional PCCF Sarvesh Rai, MD JKSFC Vasu Yadav, CCF Kashmir S. F. A. Gillani, Secretary (Technical) K Ramesh Kumar, other senior officers of Forest and its allied wings and officers, staff of SSDI were present on the occasion.

Humayun Rashid, Scientist/Principal Investigator SSDI gave a detailed overview of the State Spatial Data Infrastructure project and its implementation in the state. The project is being funded by DEST, GoI and State Department of Science and Technology.

Regarding SSDI initiative in the state, it was informed that SSDI-JK visualizes a distributed electronic network of data producers and users, development of standards for data collection, collection, and exchange, formulation of procedures and partnerships to ultimately result in creation of a national digital geospatial data framework and development of new relationships that allow organizations and individuals from all sectors to work together to share geospatial data.

The spatial data is important database for making sound decisions at the local, regional and state level, besides, implementation of action plans for infrastructure development, disaster management and business development.