Internet giant Google has not given up on bringing its Street View services to India. The company is in talks with the Centre to see how the service can be launched in compliance with local regulations.

“Google Street View is present in more than 82 countries around the world, which have benefited from it in terms of tourism and other aspects. We are hopeful of the same coming back to India,” said Anal Ghosh, Program Manager, Google Maps India.

“We are working with the Indian government and although we don’t have a timeline on the project, we are hopeful of bringing the Street View experience to users in India,” he added.

Earlier, the Indian government had refused to give security clearances citing objections raised by the Defence Ministry.

Introduced in 2007 in the US, Street View uses bikes and cars fitted with cameras to collect 360-degree images which the user is then able to see it in a panoramic view with street-level 3D imagery. It was launched in India in 2011 in Bengaluru to collect street-level imagery but, was soon asked by local authorities to stop the service citing security reasons.

Revived again in 2015, Google tied up with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to bring 31 historical monuments and sites online and offer panoramic views to the consumer.

Meanwhile, in a bid to ramp up its mapping services, Google India has scaled up its Local Guides programme in India. India is among the top three countries in Local Guides usage. The‘Local Guide’ project basically lets user add information such as reviews, ratings, and photos for a local place.

‘Local Guides’ “We have been adding many features to the Local Guides programme and it is heartening to see the number of contributions which have been made by the users to enhance the experience for their fellow users. ‘Local Guides’ in Thiruvananthapuram came together last month to encourage people to become contributors for the maps,” said Ghosh.

Google says it has been providing special perks likes vouchers from partners or easy access to Google features based on the contributions made by an individual user. The programme has a grading system where users get levels based on their contributions.

To encourage users who reach level 10, Google has been arranging for a Local Guides meet at its headquarters in California annually for getting feedbacks with respect to the programme.

The writer is an intern with BusinessLine Mumbai Bureau

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