Workshop on role of geospatial technology in development of BTR held

HT Correspondent
KOKRAJHAR, Feb 8: In order to bring the key stakeholders together and apprise them about the best use of Space Technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), an one-day seminar on ‘Role of Geospatial Technology in development of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR)’ was held under the aegis of Assam State Space Application Centre (ASSAC) of Science, Technology and Climate Change department of government of Assam in association with BTR government here in the auditorium of BTC Assembly Building on Tuesday.
The workshop was attended by officials of almost all the departments, including the officials of development and administrative departments of the BTR. The workshop was inaugurated by Pramod Boro, chief executive member (CEM) of BTR as chief guest and Anurag Goel, principal secretary, BTR and BK Handique, senior scientist from North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC), government of India as guests of honour.
In his inaugural address, CEM Boro urged the departments within BTR to understand the technologies and harvest the benefit of space inputs while preparing any action plan for the development of BTR. He also requested the participants to identify schemes with the support of space technology and
include budget provision in the current financial year.
BTR principal secretary, Anurag Goel appraised the activities taken up by NESAC and ASSAC during the last few decades and emphatically requested all the departments to come forward with schemes that involve preparation of DPR, execution and monitoring of the other developmental works where technical support from NESAC and ASSAC can be obtained continuously.
Addressing the event, senior scientist from NESAC BK Handique elaborated the activities carried out by NESAC using space and geospatial technologies. He also highlighted some of the applications of these technologies in the BTR.
At the beginning of the event, PLN Raju, director of ASSAC welcomed all the guests and the participants. He gave an overview of space technology and geospatial tools for different applications.
Attending as a resource person from Assam State Space Application Centre, Utpal Sarma, principal scientific officer also gave a brief idea about application projects carried out by ASSAC using geospatial tools for Assam state.
During the workshop, Bharati Sarania, senior scientific officer of ASSAC also spoke on the potentialities of remote sensing and GIS techniques for planning and resources mapping.
The workshop was also attended by the experts from ASSAC – Debashish Baruah, Kalyanjit Sarma, Amlan Saikia, Monisha Das, Kunal Bora, Jumoni Baruah and Dipankar Sarma. They also delivered lectures on GPS, DGPS,
UAV, QGIS, Geo-web portal and many other technologies with hands-on practical skills in the later part of the workshop.
As part of the programme, panel discussions and feedback sessions were also conducted addressing issues, challenges of different departments and how the geo-spatial technology addresses those problems under the chairmanship of BTR principal secretary Anurag Goel and PLN Raju, director of ASSAC.
The inaugural part of the programme was also attended by BTR executive member Rakesh Brahma, MCLAs – Montu Boro, Madhab Chandra Chetry, secretaries and other officials of BTC Secretariat.
The programme was anchored by Prasanna Baruah, senior scientific officer of ASSAC. The workshop concluded with a vote of thanks from Dhiraj Saud, secretary, BTR.