Trinidad and Tobago to be mapped 

Buildings and parcels in Trinidad and Tobago are to be registered. For the next two years COWI will be preparing cadastral maps of the two Caribbean islands, whose population totals about 1.3 million

To date, only imprecise registers have existed showing the size of plots of land and approximately where they are located. With precision documentation of the ownership of land and property, the government hopes to pave the way for foreign investments and national development.

Taxation, loans and property evaluations

To assist the project, a user-oriented program will be used to register the title deeds of individual plots of land. This will enable information to be found and registered across ministries. The system can also be expanded to contain additional information such as data on taxation, loans and property evaluations.

"Everything is based on ownership,” explains COWI project manager Lars Bagge Nielsen. “This is the starting point for an equitable system of taxation and a prerequisite for ensuring people’s rights. If you wish to attract investors such as hotels and the oil industry, it is important to know who owns the land. As things stand at present, you have to hire a land inspector to carry out a precise land registration. And that can be costly."

Openness in public administration

COWI is completing the work within Geographic Information Systems (GIS), mapping and application systems on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources. The project is part of an agricultural sector programme financed by the American Development Bank (IDB), to which Denmark is a contributor.

The project will be completed by engineers from COWI’s subsidiary Kampsax India, who will convert about 800 analogue maps consisting of line drawings of plots, roads and waterways into digital maps. In addition, COWI consultants will provide specifications of about 800,000 cadastral registrations, or plots, using dots, lines and surfaces.

Published: 09.02.2004