A comprehensive site on cartographic data for India.
When you were in school, you were required to map the mineral deposits in India, or ports of India. Well in todays times… this is the site you want to be on. The site features all the cartographic data for India. These people have already mapped out details of the entire physical and political landscape of India. This is site where you will need to spend a considerable time exploring out and getting used to it.
Although the site has lot of features, I would like to comment on the utilitarian value that this site has been fulfilling. There are 2 possible audiences for this site.
Audience for academic and research purposes:
State, Region, district Maps: All the state are represented, metros, some major towns and cities are also mapped and made available.
Census maps: Do you really want to know how many babies were born in Bihar last year??:O
Indian Weather maps: What part of India will receive what kind of rainfall and heat waves. Just reverse the predicted trend and you know what the weather is gonna be: D
India Geology maps: Comprising of Minerals, Oil, gas, refinery, gas pipeline maps (Try to siphon out a oil pipe to your home from the places where the pipeline passes through :D)
Latitudes and longitudes of major cities in India : Hmm.. my vote for the silliest featured map incorporated in the website. (Why on Earth would I need that?? utilitarian value=0)
Energy maps: Thermal power, Hydro, Electricity, Nuclear power, Wind power, solar power
Agriculture maps: What should have grown in what part of India….(if the PDS had distributed the seeds effieciently)
Major air, rail, waterway & road networks maps
Indian universities map: No purpose served. Only useful if you intend to travel by helicopter to these colleges:D
Cricket Stadium map: ok ok.. I donno how many must have actually used it
Audience for travel and travellers:
Apart from the above city, state and transport related data, the site also provides for
City Map: All the state are represented, metros, some major towns and cities are also mapped and made available.
Indian transportation network (Air Road Train) : A very comprehensive data of train circles, national highways, connecting roads and air travel routes. You will be surprised at the depth of information available here
Indian Tourism maps: Maps for Beaches, Adventure travel, Wildlife, tourist attractions, places of interests. Very well done.
Recommended Gems in the site:
Distance calculator: This calculates the distance between two cities. a very useful feature for road travellers
Search: This is a specialized search to know the Pincode & the STD codes for major cities. I was able to find my friends pincode by the address. Very good.
Site related:
Look and Feel: The look and feel of this site can be improved. The place is not cluttered but looks badly managed. Moreover I am not too comfortable with clashing and loud colors.
Navigation: The navigation is a difficult proposition. Although you get to see everything on one page, but after you get inside couple of pages the navigation pane merges all the previous and home page data and shows up on left .
Registration: Registration is free. Although I believe they will let you surf for some time and when you click on some map then the site will throw you a registration page, which will then allow you surf inside.
Site loading : Site is probably hosted in India and the pages come up fast. The maps page do take up a little time but then those are heavy images.
Map related:
Quality of maps: Hmmm. I am happy with what I get to see, but then when I looked at maps.com page, then I think that there is massive scope for improvement. I think till the time the purpose is served, I should not be complaining.
Validity of data: Good enough if not great. The data is correct but do not bet your money on this data:D
Scaling of maps: Maps are not to scale. The scaling has to be approximated.
Any other map site??? No. You will get a lot of maps site but none and better than mapsofIndia on Indian map specific information
Overall I think this site is the only site catering to Maps of India and is a big hit for travellers on the road and for planning itenaries. It also serves as an academic thirst quencher for various India related information to be tracked down geographically.
I suggest you try it out and you will not be disappointed with your experience with the content and information.