Government Mulls Allowing 3D Imagery of Indian Cities on Google Earth

3D imagery of buildings and terrain of India's major cities, including Rashtrapati Bhavan and PMO, could soon be seen in Google Earth with the government contemplating to give permission for uploading pictures of the country's metropolitan areas.

Home Ministry officials recently held a meeting with representatives of Google and the issue was discussed threadbare.

"Discussions are on and we are planning to give permission to Google to put 3D imagery of Indian metropolitan areas in Google Earth," a Home Ministry official said.

If permission is given, apart from Rashtrapati Bhavan and Prime Minister's Office, which is located in South Block, 3D imagery of other sensitive buildings like North Block, Prime Minister's residence, headquarters of Army, Air Force, Navy could also also be seen in Google Earth.

(Also see: Hyderabad to Become the First Indian City to Offer Google Street View)

United States, the United Kingdom, China and many countries in the world have already given permission to put 3D imagery of their respective metropolitan areas.

Google Earth is a very popular geolocation software. In Google Earth 7, the latest version, one can see complete 3D representations of buildings and terrain throughout metropolitan areas.

3D imagery provides an immersive experience as one can explore, just like the view when someone is flying over the city. As it is zoomed in, buildings and terrain will start to appear in 3D. Once you can see the buildings, pan, zoom, tilt, and rotate to explore the 3D environment.

Anyone can view 3D imagery by using Google Earth 7 on a wide variety of mobile devices - any dual-core Android device running Gingerbread (Android version 2.3) or higher, or any iOS device running iOS 4.3 or higher.