Defence Sites to Be Kept Out of Google's Hyderabad Street View Project

The Telangana government has agreed to keep sensitive defence installations in Hyderabad out of Google Street View and the union home ministry is expected to soon give permission for the project, a top official said on Monday.

As the city is home to some vital defence laboratories and other installations, the home ministry wanted the state government to not include them in the Street View.

"The state government is ready for this. The matter is now under the consideration of the union home ministry," said Jayesh Ranjan, secretary, information technology, government of Telangana.

He told reporters on the sidelines of an event here that a global team of Google Maps, which is already positioned in Hyderabad, is working on the project.

"They are working in the background. As soon as we get permission, we will go ahead with its implementation," the official said.

This will make Hyderabad the first city in India to be entirely covered by Google Street View, which lets one explore places through 360-degree, panoramic and street-level imagery.

The state government also plans to extend the project to other parts of Telangana in the subsequent phase. The official said the project would prove helpful for the common man as he will be able to trace ATM, bank, post office or other locations quite easily.

Google had last month agreed to cover Hyderabad under Street View. This was decided during Information and Technology Minister K. Tarakarama Rao's visit to the US.

It was during this visit that the Internet services giant signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government to build its campus in Hyderabad, which will be its biggest campus outside the US.

The campus will be coming up with an investment of Rs. 1,000 crores on 7.2 acres of land at Gachibowli, the IT corridor.