DIGIPIN: Geo-Coded Addressing in India
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The Department of India Post is advancing an initiative to establish a standardized, geo-coded addressing system, ensuring simplified addressing solutions for the citizen-centric delivery of public and private services. This initiative, in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad, has led to the development of a National Level Addressing Grid-based system, named Digital Postal Index Number (DIGIPIN). This system aims to be a robust pillar of Geospatial Governance, enhancing public service delivery, expediting emergency response, and significantly boosting logistics efficiency.
DIGIPIN is a standardized, geo-coded addressing system that divides the geographical territory of India into uniform 4-meter by 4-meter units. Each of these units are assigned a unique 10-digit alphanumeric code, derived from the latitude and longitude coordinates of the unit. This system ensures simplified addressing solutions for citizen-centric delivery of public and private services.
DIGIPIN is visualized as an offline grid system that:
• Divides the entire geographical territory of India into 4m x 4m units.
• Assigns a unique 10-digit alphanumeric code to each unit.
• Functions as an offline addressing reference system, making it highly scalable and adaptable.
The DIGIPIN system is built using a hierarchical partitioning method. The geographical region is enclosed within a bounding box that covers the entire country. This box is subdivided into smaller regions, each labeled with one of the 16 alphanumeric symbols: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, G, J, K, L, M, P, W, X.
For more detailed information on the technical aspects of DIGIPIN, you can refer to the technical document released by the Department of Posts.
The Benefits of DIGIPIN
DIGIPIN offers several advantages:
• Accurate Geospatial Information: Ensures precise location data, enhancing public service delivery and emergency response.
• Scalability: Can be integrated with existing GIS applications and used for various purposes, including logistics and disaster management.
• Public Accessibility: Available in the public domain, ensuring no privacy concerns as no personal data is stored against the DIGIPIN code.
To facilitate the use of DIGIPIN in various applications, I have developed an npm package named digipin. This package allows you to easily generate DIGIPIN codes from latitude and longitude coordinates and vice versa.
To get started, install the digipin package from npm:
npm install digipin
import digipin from 'digipin';
// Get DIGIPIN from latitude and longitude const digipinCode = digipin.getDIGIPINFromLatLon(28.6139, 77.2090); console.log(digipinCode); // Output: Example DIGIPIN code
// Get latitude and longitude from DIGIPIN const coordinates = digipin.getLatLonFromDIGIPIN(digipinCode); console.log(coordinates); // Output: { latitude: 28.6139, longitude: 77.2090 }
Check out our live demo to see how you can search for the DIGIPIN for your location.
DIGIPIN is set to transform the way we handle addressing in India, providing a robust and efficient system for location-based services. With the digipin npm package, developers can now easily integrate this innovative system into their projects, ensuring precise geospatial information and improved service delivery.
For more information and technical details, please refer to the official DIGIPIN Technical Document.
Credits: The Digipin project has been developed by the Department of India Post in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad.
By incorporating the DIGIPIN system into your applications, you can leverage the power of accurate and standardized geo-coded addresses, enhancing your project’s functionality and efficiency.