Digital mapping of Albania to be done by Croatian GEOFOTO

TIRANA, Dec.25 – Shaban Memia, the Agency for legalization, urbanization and integration of informal zones (ALUIZNI) declared on Wednesday the winner of the tender for digital photographing of the Albanian territory. The Croatian photo-grammetric, geo-informatics, cartographic and cadastral services provider Geofoto placed the winning offer of 2,226,026 euro. The contract was signed in the presence of the Croatian ambassador Darko Javorski and GEOFOTO”S Executive Director Zvonko Biljecki. The project includes the digital documentation of the urban areas of a surface 1200 km2. The company will make an air digital picture of the country and create the map basis in accordance with international standards that would help authorities better manage the territory and other projects. The digital map will also serve as a very basic resource for the authorities in the property restitution process. That would also help citizens to faster get the data they require. There will soon be results for the urban area in the capital Tirana, then the data may be found in a hard disc within a quarter and the whole work is expected to end in nine months.
The current Albanian government is trying to control the widespread illegal construction activity by a new legalizing initiative for housing and commercial sites built up without the necessary permits.