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AyRojgar

Land survey and amin service

Measuring land with chain and tape or with instruments, and matching the map against what is actually held. The paperwork now has fixed government prices: a mouza map is Tk 630 and a khatian online is Tk 100. The amin's own fee has no official rate.

  • Last reviewed: 21 September 2026
  • Version 1
Land survey and amin service

Land survey and amin service

Starting capital
৳1,000 – ৳61,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 4 people
First sale
3 – 30 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
1 – 12 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Mobile service · Medium difficulty

About the business

Measuring land for people. Somebody is buying a plot, brothers and sisters are dividing an inheritance, neighbours are fighting over a boundary ridge, and an amin is called. The amin takes the map and the khatian to the field, works plot by plot, and shows how far the paper land and the held land agree. The government survey is a different thing altogether: it is run by the Directorate of Land Records and Surveys through its zonal settlement offices, and it produces the records known as CS, SA, RS and BS. A private amin uses those records and cannot create one. The work has shifted in recent years. Getting a map or a porcha once meant days at the district office; now the Ministry of Land's own site publishes fixed prices: Tk 100 for a khatian taken online, Tk 140 for a certified khatian posted to you, and Tk 520 plus Tk 110 of domestic postage, Tk 630, for a mouza map. Mutation costs a Tk 20 court fee, a Tk 50 notice fee and a Tk 1,100 DCR. The instruments are changing too, with the directorate now using drones, LiDAR and robotic total stations. But the country-wide digital survey has not happened: a Tk 1,212.55 crore project reached 0.28 percent progress in three and a half years and was scrapped in July 2023, with 5,544 posts in the directorate lying vacant. The slower the state survey, the more the private amin is called. And the work carries real exposure: giving false information in a survey or a record update is an offence under the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act 2023 punishable with up to seven years in prison.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳5,000 – ৳25,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳1,500 – ৳6,000 / unitEditorial estimate
Variable cost৳730 – ৳1,130 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin25% – 88%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue3 – 30 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time1 – 12 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle0 – 30 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss5% – 15%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity1 – 3Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A measuring chain or tape, pegs and ranging rods, a compass, a field book and a calculator: that is the traditional set the work starts with. Larger jobs need a total station or GPS, and the directorate itself uses drones, LiDAR and robotic total stations. Bangladeshi prices for these instruments could not be verified from any source.Equipment
  • The government papers for each job: mouza map Tk 520 + Tk 110 postage = Tk 630; khatian online Tk 100; certified khatian by post Tk 100 + Tk 40 = Tk 140; khatian correction application Tk 20. The amin pays this first and recovers it from the customer later.Starting stock
  • No separate government certificate, registration or licence for a private amin could be found on the Directorate of Land Records and Surveys site or in the Ministry of Land's service list. The amins on a government survey are departmental staff under recruitment rules, which is employment and not a business. Whether any requirement exists should be checked with your own district settlement office before starting.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000, issued in 3-5 working days and renewed yearly. In the DNCC area the application is online, issued in 3 working days and renewed in 2.Licence
  • Reading CS, SA, RS and BS records; matching plot, khatian, JL number and mouza; converting between decimal, katha, bigha and acre; drawing a sketch by hand; and the patience to explain a measurement standing between two parties. Most of the trouble in this work is not the measuring, it is the people.Skill
  • The upazila land office, the district record room and the zonal settlement office, where the old maps, jurisdiction lists and mouza lists come from. CS, RS and BS maps can be bought from the Directorate's map press.Supplier
  • The work is in the field, so no shop is needed, but a dry, safe place is needed for the papers, sketches and signed files. A small table in the bazar is how customers find you; rent levels could not be verified here.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Learn the measuring by hand: running a plot with chain and tape, breaking it into triangles for area, and converting between decimal, katha, bigha and acre. A wrong measurement means a fight between neighbours and your name attached to it.
  2. 2Learn to read CS, SA, RS and BS records. If you do not know which survey is the latest in that district, you will measure against the wrong map.
  3. 3Take a trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad: form Tk 10, book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300 and a licence fee of Tk 100-60,000, issued in 3-5 working days.
  4. 4Before taking the job, write down the plot number, the khatian number, the mouza name and the JL number. Without them you cannot pull the khatian or the map online.
  5. 5Pull the khatian and the mouza map from the Ministry of Land's site: Tk 100 for a khatian online, Tk 140 for a certified khatian by post, and Tk 630 for a mouza map, being Tk 520 plus Tk 110 postage. The map takes time to arrive, so order it first.
  6. 6Tell both sides the day and time before you go to the field. A boundary measured without telling one side will not be accepted by anyone, and it invites a brawl.
  7. 7Start from permanent features: the old ridge, the pond bank, the edge of the road. The whole job is showing how far the plot on the map and the possession on the ground agree.
  8. 8When the measuring is done, draw the sketch, explain it in front of both parties and get everyone's signature on it. Unsigned paper gets denied later.
  9. 9If the measurement comes out short or long, write that down; do not try to settle it yourself. Deciding whose land it is belongs to the court or the land office, not to the amin.
  10. 10On a mutation job tell the customer the cost up front: Tk 20 court fee on the application, Tk 50 notice fee and Tk 1,100 DCR. Anything asked beyond that is not a government fee.
  11. 11Keep your own copy of the sketch, the khatian and the signed paper for every job. If a case comes two years later, that file is what protects you.
  12. 12Decide whether to move to instruments by the kind of work you get. The directorate now uses drones, LiDAR and robotic total stations; chain still does for a small village plot, but on urban plots and large holdings the work is drying up without instruments. Instrument prices could not be verified here.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarHigh
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunLow
  7. JulLow
  8. AugLow
  9. SepLow
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovHigh
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitBarguna · One of the five districts whose 32 upazilas were to get the digital survey in the project that was scrapped. With the state survey stalled, the demand for private measuring stays.
  • Strong fitGopalganj · On the digital survey list, and in its low-lying and beel areas boundary disputes over plots are common.
  • Strong fitPabna · On the digital survey list, and with land rising and drowning on the Padma and Jamuna chars it is diara survey country.
  • Strong fitPatuakhali · Also on the project's list. On the coastal chars and in erosion-hit areas boundaries shift again and again, so the measuring never runs out.
  • Strong fitSirajganj · On the digital survey list; the Jamuna chars change shape every year, so matching measurement to possession is constant work.
  • PossibleCox's Bazar · Tourism land is expensive, so disputes over boundary and possession are frequent and so is the demand for measuring.
  • PossibleGazipur · Factories and housing next to Dhaka are pushing land prices up fast, and when prices rise old plot boundaries get questioned.
  • PossibleMunshiganj · Padma erosion and new char land, with heavy buying and selling because it is close to Dhaka.
  • PossibleNarayanganj · Industry and housing are splitting land into small plots, and every split needs a fresh measurement and a mutation with its Tk 1,100 DCR.
  • PossibleSunamganj · Haor land is under water half the year, so measuring happens in the dry season and boundary quarrels are routine.

Risks and cautions

  • HighCompliance: Under the Land Crime Prevention and Remedy Act 2023, giving false information to the authority during a survey or a record update is land fraud, punishable with up to seven years' imprisonment and a fine. Preparing a false document or part of one is forgery, also seven years. An amin who adjusts a measurement to suit one side falls squarely inside both.
  • HighOther: Being caught in the middle of a quarrel is routine. Whichever side the measurement goes against blames the amin, and in a village that name sticks for years. Damaging a boundary mark or the land itself is an offence carrying up to two years, so if ridges get cut during a measurement the case can name you too.
  • HighDependency: Everything rests on the government record. If the map is old or torn, if the mouza record has not been updated, or if the khatian will not come up online, the job stops, and you cannot ask the customer for the full fee either. When the record gets updated is not in the amin's hands.
  • MediumDemand: Competition from instruments is rising. The directorate itself uses drones, LiDAR and robotic total stations, and owners of urban plots and large holdings want an instrument-measured sketch. Staying with chain and tape confines you to small plots, where the fee is small.
  • MediumLate payment: The amin pays the map and khatian fees out of his own pocket, Tk 730 to Tk 1,130 a job, but the customer pays after the measuring is done, and later still on a partition or a court job. Take several jobs at once and that advance is what empties the hand.

Sources

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