HYDERABAD: After nearly eight decades, a comprehensive land survey will be taken up in seven districts of Telangana - Ranga Reddy, Warangal, Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Adilabad and Khammam. The last extensive survey in these districts was conducted by the Nizam's government in the 1930s.

The Centre recently agreed to fund the survey following a request from the Telangana government. The state revenue department's survey and land settlement wing is gearing up to conduct the survey at a cost of about Rs 260 crore. The Centre will foot half the cost.

The ministry of rural development (MoRD) is also extending financial support for the survey under National Land Records Modernization Programme.

The complete land survey is expected to help the revenue department and other agencies, including private land owners, by clearly demarcating both government and private land, putting an end to land disputes. "The proposals have been sent to the state government to form a tender committee for finalizing the bids to carry out the survey," a senior official of the survey and land settlement wing told TOI.

Officials said the survey will take at least three years to complete. Six months are required for identifying and erecting control points in villages and aerial imagery simultaneously, and two years for the actual survey. The verification and matching with available land records will take another six months. The department will also seek objections and suggestions from people once it prepares draft reports.

The proposal to conduct a land survey was mooted several years ago in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Land survey and updating of records was done in Nizamabad district under Bhu Bharathi project in 2008. Karimnagar district had received about Rs 50 crore from the MoRD for the survey along with four other districts in united AP - Srikakulam, Kadapa, Anantapur and Nellore - in 2008. But the survey was not carried out as the state government had not released matching grants.

Hyderabad district is not being covered for the survey as MoRD turned down the state's request to extend the scheme stating that funding provisions cannot be extended to urban areas. In Hyderabad, the last town survey was conducted between 1960 and 1975.

Officials said that the project was delayed for want of finalization of rate for the land survey. While the MoRD offered Rs 16,500 per square kilometre as survey cost, the prevailing market rates are much higher and officials are concerned that response from bidders for the survey may be lukewarm. In the wake of requests from various states, a committee set up by the Centre is reviewing the possibility of an upward revision of rates.