GIS-based in-situ slum redevelopment uses Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to identify suitable land, map eligible households, and track construction progress for redevelopment projects built on the same site where residents already live. India’s housing policy deliberately builds this approach around keeping communities in place rather than relocating them. Making that work depends on getting the spatial groundwork right before construction planning even begins.
Introduction: Why Redeveloping a Slum Starts With a Map
Redeveloping housing on an already-occupied site is a fundamentally different planning problem than building on empty land. Before any construction can begin, a project needs to know exactly which structures exist, which households are eligible for a new unit, how much surplus land or additional building capacity the site can support, and how construction can proceed around residents who continue living there throughout the process.
Answering those questions requires spatial data at a level of detail that a general area survey doesn’t provide. This is where GIS enters the picture. It provides the groundwork that determines whether an in-situ project is feasible at all, and how it should be sequenced.
What Is GIS-Based In-Situ Slum Redevelopment?
GIS-based in-situ slum redevelopment is the use of spatial mapping and analysis to support redevelopment projects built on the same site residents currently occupy, rather than projects that relocate residents elsewhere first. This includes mapping existing structures and land availability, surveying eligible households and their tenure status, and tracking construction progress as it proceeds around the existing community.
This distinction matters because in-situ redevelopment carries planning requirements that a greenfield project doesn’t face. A project built on empty land can sequence construction however is most efficient; a project built in place has to work around occupied structures, existing informal infrastructure, and the practical reality that residents continue living on site while redevelopment happens.
India’s Policy Framework: PMAY-U, ISSR, and the Land as a Resource Model
In-situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) was one of the four original verticals of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U), the national urban housing mission launched in 2015, alongside Beneficiary Led Construction, Affordable Housing in Partnership, and the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme. Under ISSR, a redevelopment grant of ₹1 lakh per house was admissible for houses built for eligible residents through the “land as a resource” model.
That model works as follows: a private developer is permitted to use surplus land within the site, or additional Floor Space Index generated by the redevelopment, to fund construction commercially, in exchange for building free housing for eligible residents on the same site. This is a distinct mechanism from land acquisition or land pooling; no land changes hands away from its current occupants, and the developer’s commercial return comes from building additional saleable area on the same footprint, not from acquiring the underlying land itself.
It’s worth being precise about ISSR’s current status. PMAY-U 2.0, effective 1 September 2024, is implemented through four verticals: Beneficiary Led Construction, Affordable Housing in Partnership, Affordable Rental Housing, and the Interest Subsidy Scheme. ISSR is not listed as an independent vertical under this revised structure. Some states continue land rights-based, in-situ approaches for existing communities using the current BLC and AHP components, but ISSR as a distinct, standalone vertical was specific to the original PMAY-U period rather than a continuing feature of PMAY-U 2.0.
How GIS Supports Site Selection and Land Suitability for In-Situ Redevelopment
Establishing the boundary and existing footprint
Before any redevelopment proposal can be drafted, a project needs an accurate map of the notified area’s boundary and the footprint of every existing structure within it. Indo ArcGIS Living Atlas provides ready-made administrative and village boundary layers for India, among more than 100 content categories drawing over 80 million annual data requests, giving a project this base reference layer as a starting point rather than something built entirely from scratch.
Identifying surplus land and permissible construction capacity
With the existing footprint mapped, planners can identify how much surplus land sits within the boundary and what Floor Space Index the local development plan permits, both of which determine what a private developer could feasibly build under the land as a resource model. ArcGIS Pro supports this kind of layered analysis, combining footprint data, development plan rules, and site constraints in one environment.
Running multi-criteria land suitability analysis
Academic research on Indian cities, including published studies covering Rajkot and Pune, has documented multi-criteria decision-making approaches to assess land suitability for redevelopment, weighing factors like access, infrastructure proximity, and site constraints against each other systematically rather than through an ad hoc judgment call.
Mapping access and infrastructure constraints
Beyond the site boundary itself, a redevelopment proposal needs to account for road access, existing infrastructure connections, and any physical constraints that would affect how construction can be phased. This layer of analysis is what turns a land suitability assessment into a proposal that a developer and a state housing authority can actually evaluate.
From Survey to Sanction: Mapping Eligible Households and Tenure
Land suitability answers where redevelopment can happen; a separate survey has to establish who is eligible for a unit once it’s built. This distinction matters because in-situ redevelopment is designed around regularizing the occupancy of residents already living on site, not around identifying new beneficiaries elsewhere.
A household and tenure survey, conducted using mobile field data collection tools like ArcGIS Field Maps or ArcGIS Survey123, records each household’s location, structure details, and documentation relevant to eligibility, tied to a precise geo-tagged position rather than a general address. This produces a spatial record distinct from a general population count, since it connects each eligible household to a specific structure and location within the site, which is what a sanctioning authority needs before approving a project and what a developer needs before planning construction phasing around occupied units.
This entire sequence, from land suitability through household survey, is described here as a capability that GIS-based tools can support.
Beyond Construction: Geo-Tagging Progress and Verifying Occupancy
Once a project is sanctioned, tracking construction progress becomes the next spatial task, and this is the one part of the workflow that is a documented, operational government system rather than a described capability. PMAY-U’s own Management Information System is equipped with five-stage geo-tagging, integrated with the Bhuvan portal of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and BharatMaps of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), for monitoring construction progress under the BLC, ISSR, and AHP verticals.
A public dashboard displaying geo-tagged AHP and ISSR projects makes this progress data available for review. Verifying occupancy after construction is a related but separate step, confirming that completed units are actually occupied by the eligible households the original survey identified, closing the loop between who was surveyed as eligible and who ultimately received housing on the same site they started on.
How Indian States and Cities Have Approached In-Situ Redevelopment Today
ISSR’s uptake under the original PMAY-U was comparatively modest relative to the mission’s other verticals; sanctioned houses under this vertical made up a smaller share of the mission’s total compared to Beneficiary Led Construction and Affordable Housing in Partnership. Policy analysis has documented land availability and financial viability as contributing factors, since the land as a resource model depends on a developer finding enough surplus land or permissible additional construction to make a project commercially viable on a given site, a condition that doesn’t hold everywhere.
With ISSR no longer a standalone vertical under PMAY-U 2.0, some states continue land rights-based, in-situ approaches for existing communities using the current BLC and AHP components instead, applying similar land-as-a-resource logic within the revised scheme structure rather than through a dedicated vertical.
State housing authorities and urban local bodies evaluating this kind of spatial approach can review National Government and State and Local Government solutions from Esri India to see how this kind of data infrastructure supports public-sector planning work.
Challenges and the Road Ahead
Tenure records within notified areas are often undigitized or disputed
Establishing exactly who has tenure rights to which structure can be complicated by paper-based or inconsistent records, which means a household survey sometimes has to work through documentation gaps before eligibility can be confirmed with confidence.
Construction has to be phased around residents who remain on site
Unlike a greenfield project, in-situ redevelopment has to sequence construction so that residents can continue living on or near the site throughout the process, which is a more complex phasing problem than clearing a site and building without that constraint.
Notification status varies inconsistently across states
Whether a given settlement is formally notified affects what redevelopment mechanisms are available to it, and this status isn’t applied consistently across different states and cities, which complicates any effort to standardize an approach nationally.
Coordination between multiple parties has to hold for the life of the project
An in-situ project depends on sustained coordination between a state housing authority, a private developer, and the affected community, and that coordination has to hold from land suitability assessment through construction completion, not just at the project’s launch.
Every household mapped accurately before construction begins is a household whose place in a redevelopment project is documented rather than assumed. As states continue exploring land rights-based, in-situ approaches under PMAY-U 2.0’s current verticals, the spatial groundwork described here (mapping land, households, and construction progress in place) remains the same regardless of which specific policy vertical carries it forward.
FAQs
1.What is in-situ slum redevelopment?
In-situ slum redevelopment rebuilds housing on the same site residents already occupy, rather than relocating them. It typically uses a “land as a resource” model, where a private developer funds construction using surplus land in exchange for free housing for eligible residents.
2.How does GIS support slum redevelopment planning?
GIS supports in-situ redevelopment by mapping site suitability, surveying eligible households with geo-tagged precision, and tracking construction progress around residents who remain on site.
3.What does land as a resource mean in Indian housing policy?
Land as a resource lets a private developer use surplus land or extra Floor Space Index to fund construction, in exchange for free housing for eligible residents on the same site. It’s distinct from land acquisition or pooling, since no land changes hands.
4.Is in-situ slum redevelopment still part of India’s housing scheme?
ISSR was one of PMAY-U’s four original verticals, but it’s not a standalone vertical under PMAY-U 2.0. Some states still pursue in-situ approaches using the current BLC and AHP components instead.
5.What are the main challenges in applying GIS to slum redevelopment in India?
The main challenges are undigitized or disputed tenure records, phasing construction around residents who remain on site, and inconsistent notification status across states. Coordination between the authority, developer, and community also has to hold for the project’s full life.
Written by
Esri India Marketing
