---
title: Mapping PIN codes
date: "2011-03-06T20:14:01Z"
categories:
  - open-source
  - visualisation
wp_id: 2612
description: I built a crowd-sourced platform to map Indian PIN codes after finding no reliable open databases. I used GeoNames and OpenStreetMap data to seed the project, allowing users to contribute coordinates under a Creative Commons license.
keywords: [indian pin codes, geo-location, crowd-sourcing, geonames, openstreetmap, open data, datameet]
---

I haven’t found an open or reliable database providing the geo-location of [Indian PIN codes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Index_Number). That’s a bother if you’re creating geographic mash-ups. The closest were commercial sources:

- a PIN code directory from the [Postal Training Centre](http://www.ptcmysore.gov.in/Publication.aspx) for Rs. 2,000, which probably just contains a list of PIN codes, and
- a PIN code map from [MapMyIndia](http://mapstore.mapmyindia.com/pincode.html) for Rs. 1,00,000, whose quality I’m not sure of. (I spoke to one of their sales representatives who mentioned that the data was gathered via companies such as Coca Cola, using their local distribution knowledge, perhaps GPSs.)

Crowd-sourcing this might help. Here’s a site where you can map the location of any PIN code you know:

**[pincode.datameet.org](http://pincode.datameet.org/)**

For example, if you knew the exact location of the PIN code 110083 (which happens to be Mongolpuri in New Delhi), just go to <http://pincode.datameet.org/IN/110083> and move the marker to where it should be.

I’ve initially populated the data from [GeoNames](http://download.geonames.org/export/zip/). [Arun](https://profiles.google.com/arunganesh03/about) has offered [OpenStreetMap](http://www.openstreetmap.org/) data. If you know of any sources that we could use, please let me know. And if you want to use the data, feel free. It’s [CC](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) licensed. You can check out the [source on github](https://github.com/sanand0/pincode) too.

---

## Comments

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- **Arun Anantharaman** _8 Mar 2011 3:14 am_:
  Not sure if I am doing something wrong, but am unable to edit on the pincode.datameet.org page. Get an error if I click on the "go" button.
- **Vanaja** _7 Mar 2011 5:29 am_:
  A searchable database by Bharatiya Dak!http://www.indiapost.gov.in/pin/pinsearch.aspx
- **[Prashanth](http://hellogeek.in)** _11 Mar 2011 7:00 am_:
  Great initiative.
  Blogged about it over here - http://hellogeek.in/2011/03/crowd-sourced-pin-code-geomapping-project-lets-contribute/
- **Prateek** _14 Oct 2012 1:57 am_:
  great work!
  But for some reason I could not view the markers on map.
  Is this browser not supported: Chromium on Linux ?
- **Rakesh Patil** _27 May 2014 7:57 pm_:
  Hi All,
  I was wondering if there is a database dumb which will give me list of all pin codes surrounding a particular pin code, do we have any such database? if not should we start crowd sourcing?. Please let me know if I am not clear with my question.
  Regard
  Rakesh
- **Prabaker** _10 Jun 2014 7:32 pm_:
  Great! Check this out: http://www.gadm.org/country
  Any progress on the PIN code thing? I have a few questions for you. Maybe I will send them your way, once I figure out your email.
- **vishal kumar** _15 Mar 2016 12:14 pm_:
  the website has been removed.
  i'm trying to find the coordinates of pincodes, i have the list of entire pincodes but where i found there coordinates

<!-- wp-comments-end -->