The National Land Agency says come January, all existing land titles will be available at its eLandjamaica website.

And according to the agency's Director of Business Development and Technology, Sherlock Glenister, all systems are in place to facilitate the process.

Mr. Glenister says a company has been contracted by the NLA to scan all available land titles, which were previously only accessible in bounded volume book-form.

"By the end of this calendar year, we should have all titles available online, he said. "If an endorsement or amendment is made today, it will be available tomorrow. We give a 24-hour turnaround time to make it available."

Initially launched in 2003, Mr. Glenister says eLandjamaica is being implemented in two phases, with the second phase, now under way.

Solid system

The first aspect of the project, funded by the United States Agency for International Develop-ment (USAID) at a cost of US$210,000, was to provide the NLA with a solid, modern, national land information system. This involved loading some 400,000 titles onto the system and also featured limited mapping abilities.

Under phase two of the project, the agency will be implementing a number of changes recommended by a focus group, which was engaged to voice their views on the website and its features.

The NLA currently generates an average minimum of $800,000 a month in revenue from users of the website, and it is from its own funds that financing for the second phase of the website upgrade will be derived.

This time around, the upgrade will cost the agency some US$160,000, and the sum has already been approved by the National Contract Commission (NCC).

eLand info

Website address:

www.eLandjamaica.com

Provides information on:

Land title documents.

Land valuation.

Some aspect of survey data, such as control points and maps.