Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, India, has embarked on an innovative journey to integrate its real estate documentation onto the blockchain, collaborating with AirChains, a prominent Indian Zero-Knowledge (ZK) roll-up technology firm.

Administered by the Raipur Municipal Corporation, this region processes over 8,000 building permits, work orders, and colony development permissions annually. The corporation’s decision to digitize and secure its records through blockchain was solidified when AirChains won the competitive tender, as detailed by Abinash Mishra, Commissioner of the Raipur Municipal Corporation.

“We issue building permission certificates and have faced numerous issues such as document forgery,” Mishra stated. “Collaborating with AirChains, we have developed a robust solution and are now exploring the application of blockchain for other essential urban services, including birth, death, and marriage certificates.”

Ankur Rakhi Sinha, CEO of AirChains, highlighted that this initiative marks India’s inaugural use of Zero-Knowledge Fully Homomorphic Encryption (zk-FHE). “ZK proves the veracity of information without disclosing additional data, while FHE enables computations on encrypted data without decryption,” Sinha elaborated in a blog post.

The encryption keys for this blockchain system are securely managed by the Raipur Municipal Corporation on their own servers. “Currently, we are not yet live on-chain. We are encrypting existing certificates and have completed around 100,000 to date. Once live, current data will be integrated daily,” Sinha explained. “Each building permission will be associated with a unique smart contract, and updates will be recorded on the same contract.”

Commissioner Mishra further noted that the traditional verification process for building permission applications spans “at least one month,” encompassing “seven days” for bank loan approval and subsequent communication with the municipal commissioner. The aim is to reduce this period to merely three days.

“Secure certification and decentralization are the future,” Mishra emphasized. “This initiative is a small but significant step, and I believe many will follow.”

AirChains has previously collaborated with various Indian state authorities on similar blockchain projects, further cementing its role as a pioneer in this domain.