By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, January 31, 2018: Odisha has bagged Geospatial World Excellence Award-2018 for successful IT application on tracking of mineral production, dispatch and value accrued on real time basis through its i3MS website based software.

The Award was given by Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences and Technology, YS Chowdray in the Geospatial World Forum Meeting held at Hyderabad recently.

The meet was and attended by more than 3000 geospatial experts from 90 different countries of the World. Pradipta Mishra, Senior Scientist of Odisha Space Application Center (ORSAC) received the Award on behalf of Odisha government.

The GPS linked web based software named i3MS (Integrated Mines and Mineral Management System) has been designed by the scientists of ORSAC, Bhubaneswar.

Chief Secretary and Chairman Odisha Space Application Center A P Padhi has congratulated scientists of ORSAC along with officers of Steel and Mines department for successful designing, application and use of this IT model.

The daily production and dispatch is being recorded on real time basis through this software. All the mineral transporting trucks have been put under GPS surveillance and the roads as well as mines have been geo-referenced.

“This is for the first time in India that GPS devices have been fixed on a large volume of moving objects in mining sector”, Geospatial Scientist Pradipta Mishra said.

“Till now, 392 electronic weigh bridges in 136 mines, 699 weigh bridges and 325 end user industries have been integrated with the system. All e-permits and dealer licenses are being issued online through this software and issue of manual license has been abolished,” said Deepak Mishra, the director of mines.

Mohanty further added “this GPS based IT application has helped curtailing illegal mining activities in the state”.