Kathy,

It is unlikely you will find historical road data of India in a gis data format. The best option is to scan a road map of India published around 2000 either in the National Atlas of India or some other map that shows road networks in India, and extract data from the map/maps. If you have funds, you could outsource the data extraction project.

We have done a similar project to extract historical road network data of Africa using Michelin Africa maps. The Michelin maps are some of the best road maps on the market. I outsourced the data extraction project to one of the Indian companies. The project involved georeferencing and extracting road data covering the following decades:1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. We did this project in 2015. However, I have put an embargo on the data for at least five years so that the researcher who has worked with us and shared funds to create these data sets can use the data for his project before I release the data to the public. I hope to release the data on our portal in the future.

Thanks,
-Wangyal


Tsering Wangyal Shawa

GIS and Map Librarian

Head, Map and Geospatial Information Center

Peter B. Lewis Library, Room 226

Washington Road & Ivy Lane

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

Telephone: 609-258-6804

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http://library.princeton.edu/collections/pumagic

________________________________
From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Kathy Stroud <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 7, 2021 4:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Looking for Historic (2000/2001) Road Data for India


Hi all,



Friday puzzle.  I have a graduate student who is “trying to find the status of rural roads, highways (state and national) at the district level in India for the year 2000 or 2001” and are preferably looking for it in a GIS format.



Does anyone know of a source, commercial or government for that type of data?  Could anyone recommend a good dealer for Indian GIS data?



Thanks,



Kathy



Kathy Stroud

David and Nancy Petrone Cartographic and Spatial Data Librarian

Knight Library

1299 University of Oregon

Eugene, OR 97403-1299

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541-346-3051



“A map is not just a picture—it’s also the data behind the map, the methodology used to collect and parse that data, the people doing that work, the choices made in terms of visualization and the software used to make them.”