Soon people across the world will be able to see Indian streets even before setting foot in the country. Internet giant Google is set to get regulatory clearances to offer its Street View service in India.

Google was all set to launch its 360 degree, video-like mapping service in India way back in 2011 when a BJP MLA B N Vijayakumar from Bengaluru raised objections, terming it a serious security threat to the IT industry and establishments such as ISRO and HAL.

The California-based company was subsequently pulled up by the Home Ministry and forced to hold back plans to launch this service in India.

Street View allows users to see how a city or a place looks like in real. Google uses cars and bikes fitted with cameras to collect imagery. Google takes all the individual photos that have been collected by the cameras and “stitches” them together to make the 360-degree panorama.

This service is already available in countries such as the US, Japan and South Korea.

However, according to sources, things started moving in favour of the company after Google CEO Sundar Pichai met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year. Since then, several senior Google executives, including the global head for Google Maps Manik Gupta, have made visits here to meet the government.

Google is set to receive security clearance from the Home Ministry.

However, an official communication is yet to come, said a person with direct knowledge of the development.

While refusing to give details, a Google spokesperson told BusinessLine , “We would like to bring the benefits of Street View to people in India. However, we have nothing to share at the moment.”

Telangana interested

Hyderabad could be among the first few cities where this service will be launched this year. The Telangana government has already expressed its interest and had recently met Google executives on the possibility of launching the service.

The internet giant has been offering Street View in a limited way in the country to allow people to see historical and tourist sites on mobile devices. Through a partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India, Google was given permission to add Street View imagery for 100 monuments, including Taj Mahal and Khajuraho in 2013.

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