Coimbatore Revenue Department Clears Over 70% of Land Survey Backlog in Two Years
The Coimbatore revenue department has successfully reduced its backlog of pending land survey applications by more than 70% over the past two years. Officials attribute the improvement to a combination of enhanced staffing, technology upgrades, and procedural reforms aimed at streamlining the survey process.
Data shows that in 2023, the department had 50,862 pending survey applications, which included both Not Involving Sub-Division (NISD) and Involving Sub-Division (ISD) cases. By June 8, 2025, that number had come down to 14,337, marking a sharp decline in pendency levels.
This progress is being linked to the deployment of Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) equipment and the expansion of the department’s workforce. The number of surveyors in the district increased from 60 in 2022 to 125 in 2025, which includes 53 surveyors hired on a temporary basis. This rise in manpower has helped increase the department’s monthly processing capacity to approximately 8,000 applications.
Increased efficiency is also evident in individual productivity. Each surveyor is now able to handle nearly double the number of applications per month compared to two years ago. The average processing time for a survey application has also been reduced from six to twelve months earlier to a range of 15 to 60 days.
Judicial intervention also played a part in the acceleration of processing. A directive from the Madras High Court specifically instructed revenue officials to expedite the clearance of NISD applications. This led to focused efforts that contributed significantly to reducing the overall backlog.
Simultaneously, Coimbatore has been witnessing a steady rise in the number of new land survey applications, especially from its suburban and rural regions. This trend is attributed to increased real estate activity and urbanisation in the city’s outskirts. Records indicate that ISD applications from rural areas have increased from around 8,000 in 2022 to 12,000 in 2025.
The DGPS technology has been instrumental in addressing complex survey cases. These units have been particularly useful in measuring boundaries of water bodies and resolving disputes involving unclear or overlapping claims. Currently, five DGPS units are operational in Coimbatore district. The fee for regular surveys using tape measures is ₹400 per side, whereas DGPS-based surveys are charged at ₹1,000 per side.
Digitisation of land services has further contributed to faster processing. Since 2023, when online integration was introduced, land or property purchases that do not involve any change in land extent are automatically reflected on the Patta portal within four hours of registration. This automation has eliminated the need for manual verification in such cases, allowing officials to focus on more complex applications.
With these systemic changes, the department is aiming to meet the state government’s mandate of processing each land survey petition within one month. While that goal is not yet universally met, officials believe the current pace of application disposal is a significant improvement.
Plans are underway to scale operations further, including the potential addition of more DGPS units and the expansion of digital services at the taluk level. These efforts are expected to support growing demand from peri-urban development, real estate layouts, and agricultural land transactions.
