History of Google Street View / Sri Lanka
In December 2014, Google officially launched the announcement that it would be driving in Sri Lanka with approval from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.[1]
In a press release, former Google Southeast Asia communications manager, Sana Rahman, announced that Arugam Bay, Jaffna and Matara would be the first cities in Sri Lanka to be covered in the country.[2]
During the course of the Street View project in Sri Lanka, the Google Maps team on the island attempted to photograph areas around religious sites such as Stuppas, Viharas and Monasteries. In early January 2015, the official account of the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple (Tamil: நல்லூர் கந்தசுவாமி கோவில் ; Sinhala: නල්ලුරුව ස්කන්ධ කුමාර කෝවිල), one of the most important Hindu temples in the Northern Province, released a post regarding a Google Maps car photographing part of the religious buildings in the city of Jaffna.[3]
Later in February 2015, the Google Maps team traveled to the coastal town of Pottuvil in Eastern Province to photograph the surroundings of Muhudu Maha Viharaya. (Sinhala: මුහුදු මහා විහාරය)[4]
Sightings of the Google Street View cars were noted by a number of local Sri Lankan media outlets, such as Batticaloa News which reported in March 2015 that the cars were photographing part of the coastal town of Akkaraipattu.[5] In addition, it was also reported that Street View vehicles were driving along the A3 Highway near the city of Negombo located in the Gampaha District.[6] In July 2015, the media outlet Iam Trinco reported that Google Street View cars had arrived in Trincomalee.[7]
In December 2015, the Google Maps team in Sri Lanka began to gradually extend coverage in the Western Province specifically around Colombo, including areas such as Ragama (Sinhala: රාගම ; Tamil: ரா௧ம).[8] In late March 2016, several Google drivers confirmed that the Street View project had reached the coastal city of Galle in the southern part of the country, where it took several days to photograph several suburbs including the historic center that includes the Galle Fort (Sinhala: ගාලු කොටුව ; Tamil: காலிக் கோட்டை).[9]
The company in charge of providing street view to Sri Lanka is Avant Premiere, originally contracted in December 2014 and February 2016 in order to photograph the island with gen 3 cameras, the company was re-contracted in 2021, to update the coverage with unofficial cameras and later with gen 4 cameras.[10]
In March 2016, Google released the first images of Sri Lanka, clarifying which areas had extended coverage, such as several tea plantations around the Beragala-Hali Ela highway, as well as the Elephant Pass Causeway in the Northern Province, including views of downtown Colombo, and roads around several beaches in Point Pedro, in addition to allowing cars to drive near religious sites such as the Ruwanwelisaya Stupa. All coverage of historical sites in Sri Lanka for Google Street View Highlights was done with cars, as opposed to trekkers.[11]
History
Note: We take into account the date when the coverage was taken, not the date when it was published.
Source: Sri Lanka's Coverage Dates - Emily Geo Website
| Year | Additions |
|---|---|
| 2015 |
|
| 2016 |
|
| 2021 |
|
| 2022 |
|
Gallery
Gen 3 Cameras
Bad Quality Cameras
Gen 4 Cameras
External Resources
- Sri Lanka at Google Street View Cars Mapped (Gen 3 Edition)
References
Samarawickrama, C. (2014-12-11) "Google begins capturing Sri Lankan streets". Daily Mirror.
"Google ‘Maps’ launches SL project to show people shops, where they live". Sunday Times
"Google Street view car @ Nallur" (2015-01-05) Nallur Temple via Facebook
"Google Street view captured a glimpse of the Island beauty" (2015-03-26) Avant Premiere (Pvt) Ltd Post via Facebook
"Google map street view car in Akkaraipattu" (2015-03-22) Batticaloa News
"Google Map Street View in Negombo" (2015-03-27) News In First via Facebook (Archived Version)
"திருகோணமலையில் கூகிள் மெப் ஸ்ட்ரீட் வியூ கார்" (2015-07-05) Iam Trinco via Facebook (in Tamil)
"Google street view vehicle located in #Ragama" (2015-12-31) Ragama Api රාගම අපි via Facebook
"Had a wonderful 2 Days in Galle. Here afer you will not see this vehicle in sri lanka. They covered all sri lanka" (2016-03-27) Daniel Jeevan via Facebook (Archived Version)
Nair, N. (2016-03-22) "Ayubowan Sri Lanka!" Google The Keyword.
Google Street View Project. Avant Premiere. (Archived Version)
