Google Maps brings Street View to India relying on local partners

Google has launched its 360-degree reciprocal dimension feature for 10 Indian cities with data from local partners Tech Mahindra and Mumbai-based Genesis International. This has been made possible by the new National Geospatial Policy, 2021, which lets community organizations gather this kind of data and license it to others, making it also the first country where Street View has been allowed essentially by partners.

In a world first, it is extending the Street View working of Maps to India without having to get any data itself. It’s dependent on Genesys International and Tech Mahindra, which have covered over 150,000 km within 10 cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar. It says the objective is to extend Street View to more than 50 Indian cities by the end of the year.

Google Maps brings Street View to India

To use Street View, open Google Maps, buzz into a road in any of the mentioned cities, and click on the area you want to see. The Street View API has become available to community producers too in this case.

Also in India, Maps is now showing details about speed restrictions shared by traffic officials, starting in Bengaluru and Chandigarh. More cities should get this in the future. Eight cities now get details on road termination and incidents in Maps: Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Agra.

It has also collaborated with Bengaluru traffic police to help advance their traffic light timings, and a pilot of this resulted in an almost 20% decrease in crowding across all the terminals. This will be scaled to all of Bengaluru, and the pilot is extending to Kolkata and Hyderabad in the upcoming months.

Finally, in partnership with the Central Pollution Control Board, Maps is showing “reliable air quality details”, which will be available by clicking the Layers button at the top right and choosing the Air Quality option.