After more than 10 years, Indian streets made available for Street View in Google Maps

Alphabet Inc has been working on providing access to panoramic street views of several Indian cities for 11 years, during which it has been facing hurdles from the government. Said hurdles, connected with confidentiality and security issues, have been met by Goodle not only in India, but in several other countries as well. The Indian government, in particular, had prohibited the launching of the service at least twice in the last decade, before the company and the regulatory authorities managed to find a consensus.

The service providing its users with a possibility of all-round and panoramic views of streets in ten Indian cities has been in the works for several years, with participation of such companies as Tech Mahindra and Genesys. On Wednesday, it was announced that Google had managed to meet the regulatory requirements of the government due to the changes made in the geospatial policy of the country.

According to the new rules, foreign companies are allowed to provide panoramic views of the space within the country borders, if the gathered information is licensed by local representatives. The data for the Street View service was entirely collected by Indian companies Tech Mahindra and Genesys. It was also additionally emphasized by Google Maps Experience vice-president Miriam Daniel that confidential information such as people’s faces and car numbers will be all blurred before launching.

There are further plans to provide access to Street View in more than 50 cities towards the end of the year. The company also intends to gather the data on air quality, and add this information to the map, which will be realized with the aid of India’s Central Pollution Control Board.