Chain surveyors with Babu Duba Tshering (with hat)
ABOUT US
Land administration offices in Bhutan have been around since the country began taking inventory of privately held landholdings for tax purposes. The first formal office, the Land Revenue Survey Office, was established in Samtse in 1956 to carry out chain surveys. Other offices followed, including the Land Record and Settlement Office in 1967 and the Office of the Chief of Survey in 1972. These offices were merged in 1986 to form the Survey of Bhutan, which later became the Department of Survey and Land Records in 1999 and was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture in 2003.
In 2007, the Land Act was revised and the National Land Commission was established with the Department of Survey and Land Records as its secretariat. The commission is responsible for managing and regulating land ownership and use for socio-economic development, as well as facilitating land market operations and conservation efforts. The act empowers the commission to make recommendations for declaring areas as Thromde, industrial, and protected agricultural areas, and to approve the exchange of rural registered land with State Reserved Forests land, as well as State land and State Reserve Forest land on lease for various developmental and business purposes. Environmental impact assessments are required for all these processes to ensure proper spatial planning, land use zoning, and conservation of the ecosystem.
VISION
A dynamic and professional organization that delivers excellent land governance services and provides reliable land information for the nation’s well being.
MISSION
VALUES
- Integrity
- Teamwork
- Professionalism
- Innovation
- Customer Driven