Srinagar: The Government on Friday appointed Public Works (R&B) as the nodal department for the “Call Before u Dig” Mobile App to facilitate smooth coordination between excavating agencies and underground utility asset owners to save utilities from avoidable damages during digging.
The App has been developed by the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India, and with a view to operationalizing the application, the government ordered that Public Works (R&B) Department shall be the Nodal department for implementation of the application at the UT level, according to a government order reported by GNS.
“The department shall appoint a UT CBuD Nodal/Admin Officer of senior level to operate the UT ‘Admin’ Account and shall further create user admin accounts for each department involved in infrastructure development,” it read.
“All departments involved in excavations shall, in coordination with the PW(R&B) department, appoint ‘UT department Admin/Nodal’ Officer to operate their Admin Account and shall create user admin of utility agencies under their respective departments,” it said.
The departments shall create sub-users in their respective agencies area/district wise with contact details of such offices, the order read.
“The department utility agencies which have underground infrastructure assets shall map their utility assets with GIS coordinates on PM Gati Shakti NMP platform in different layers,” it said, adding, “After activation of the CBUD app, all digging agencies mandated by the departments shall perform digging only after prior intimation through CBuD app.”
The Transport department shall also direct all owners of excavators to enroll on CBuD app, the order reads.
“While granting approval for any type of excavation anywhere by the departments, the approval letter shall mention. Any agency excavating public places, or roads shall report the location on the CBuD app before excavation.”
