New Delhi: Bhuvan, an indigenously developed satellite mapping tool similar to Google Earth, should be widely accessed by different organisations and agencies for their programmes, Science and Technology minister Prithviraj Chavan said Friday.

He said spreading its appeal among different sections is a major task before the Government. Bhuvan was launched in August this year by Indian Space Research Organisation.

“The biggest challenge before us today is how to make it popular and create a business model model like google earth out of Bhuvan,” he said at a seminar here.

He also asked the industry to talk to the space department under his ministry for its wider use.

Inaugurating the seminar on ‘Geospatial technologies for utilities in infrastructure´, he said geospatical technologies holds immense relevance for various fields in this technology driven world.

According to industry, this segment will grow into a Rs8 billion market in the coming years.

New initiatives by the Government in sectors such as urban planning, power, land records, agriculture and forests will be the major drivers for growth of geospatial industry, he said.