Survey Department of SriLanka

As the oldest Government Department of Sri Lanka, established on 2nd August 1800, the Sri Lanka Survey Department (SLSD) is the National Surveying & Mapping Organization pioneering the fields such as Land Surveying,Mapping, Satellite Remote Sensing (RS),Global Positioning System(GPS),Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Land Information Systems (LIS), Airborne Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric activities in Sri Lanka.Those fields were become more IT contributed fields today as the fast development of ICT technology related to those fields, the department drive towards new direct to increase it's efficiency

The recently established two branches, namely Geo Names (Geographical names) and NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure) play a significant role to share the land related information cooperating with other interested organizations in the country.

The Sri Lanka Survey Department (SLSD) under the Ministry of Land and Land Development acts as the National Surveying and Mapping agency of the government and is responsible for the standardization and production of all Surveying and Mapping activities in Sri Lanka. It is also responsible for the establishment of the national Cadaster under the Land Titling Program.

The national budget of the Sri Lanka allocates approximately about Rs. 2200 million annually for the activities of the SLSD. Ministry of Land and Land Development and the National Budget Department intervene improve the Surveying and Mapping activities because of the urgent needs in produce the quality of Geo/Land information which needs by the Planners, Administrators and Industrialists involved in decision making and contributing developing projects in the country.

Ceylon was ceded to British in year 1796. Sir Frederic North was proclaimed the Governer of Ceylon with the exception of the Kandyan Territory ruled by the King of Kandy, by a commission dated 06th March 1798. The famous land proclamation dated 3rd May 1800 desired abolition of common land holdings and envisaged individualization of land ownership and there by land surveys become a vital needHaving explored whatever the existing mode of Surveying of land in the island, the proclamation dated 2nd August 1800 was made outlining the original functions of the Surveyor General by the Governor “Sir Frederic North” and as a consequence, the Ceylon Survey Department was established.

Services Provided to Citizen

Providing of Digital & Printed maps: Digital data is produced by several methods such as data extracted from Aeiral photographs, Scanned maps, Digitized paper maps, Satellite images and LiDAR Data. Currently the department is issuing such data to customers in standard GIS and CAD formats. Customer oriented Maps in digital JPEG format and hardcopies are also produced by the department on request. Litho-printed standard Topographic and Thematic maps produced by the Survey Department can also be purchased.