History of Google Street View / Bangladesh
(Source: SV-Map)
In February 2013, Google announced Street View (Bengali: গুগল স্ট্রিট ভিউ) for Bangladesh, after permissions from the Ministry of Information and Technology, where Dhaka and two cities, Chittagong and Khulna, could be recorded, although Google had planned to launch the project in December 2012, but with conflicts with the Bangladesh Telecom over the content of YouTube videos, Google had to postpone the project to 2013.[1]
In February 2015, Google officially added street view to the country based on Digital Bangladesh initiatives, a project undertaken by the Bengali government to digitize part of the country's culture and increase trade and tourism.[2]
In June 2016, Google announced 63 special trekker views for Bangladesh, including patriotic sites such as Lalbagh Fort in Dhaka Division and Somapura Mahavihara in Rajshahi Division, in addition, Google collaborated with Bangladesh Tea Research Institute to provide street view of several plantations in Sylhet Division.[3]
Starting in 2021, Google collaborated with Decode, a company established in 1997 that specializes in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to bring new coverage to the country.[4]
The first Street View tests in Bangladesh were performed by cars registered in Karnataka that were originally going to cover streets in India, but due to privacy reasons, this was not possible, instead, Google moved the cars to other South Asian countries, Bangladesh was one of them along with Bhutan. In 2015, Google used several trekkers embedded in various pickup trucks to cover more major cities in the country.
In October 2023, Decode officially announced that it would cover part of Dhaka city with motorcycles equipped with Gen 4 trekkers.[5] These vehicles started covering part of the commercial zones in late 2023 and early 2024, covering areas such as Mirpur (মিরপুর).[6]
History
Note: We take into account the date when the coverage was taken, not the date when it was published.
Source: Bangladesh's Coverage Dates - Emily Geo Website
| Year | Additions |
|---|---|
| 2013 | Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna |
| 2015 |
|
| 2016 | Hatiya and Dublar Char Island |
| 2021 |
|
| 2022 |
|
| 2023 |
|
Gallery
Gen 3 Cameras
Normal Car
Pickup
Low Quality Cameras
Gen 4 Cameras
References
Mamun, A. "Google to launch street view for Dhaka, Ctg" (2013) The Daily Star.
Chowdbury, A. (2015) "Welcome to Street View, Bangladesh" Google Asia-Pacific Blog
Nair, N. "Explore history, beaches, and tea with new Street View imagery of Bangladesh" (2016) The Keyword.
"Impressed with Google Street View? Meet the company that does the job for Google" (2023) TBS News.
"Another 5 vehicles are in operation today!" (2023-10-12) The Decode Ltd. via Facebook
"A three-wheeler scooter equipped with 360-degree cameras" (2024-02-13) The Financial Express
