Street View India
India was closed to Street View for over a decade and then opened in a way no other country has: the imagery is not Google's. It was collected and is owned by Indian companies, and Google licenses it.
City guides
1 written guide for India, each with the streets worth walking and the views worth opening.
The first country where Street View is not Google's imagery
Google tried to bring Street View to India in 2011 and was refused on security grounds. It stayed refused until the National Geospatial Policy of 2021 changed what Indian companies were allowed to collect and hold.
Street View launched in July 2022 with imagery from Genesys International and Tech Mahindra, covering more than 150,000 kilometres across ten cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar and Amritsar.
This was the first time anywhere that Street View was delivered entirely by local partners, with the data collected and owned by them rather than by Google. The expansion since has followed the same arrangement.
What that means when you are exploring
Coverage is city-led and uneven in a way it is not elsewhere. A metro will be dense and the road between two metros may have nothing at all.
The imagery is recent, because all of it postdates 2022. There is no fifteen-year-old layer to fall into the way there is in parts of Europe.
Older imagery does exist in a few places from Google's own limited captures of monuments and heritage sites, which were allowed before the wider launch. The Taj Mahal has had Street View since long before the cities did.
Worth opening beyond the city guides
Amritsar around the Golden Temple, where the approach through the old city is as much of the experience as the temple itself.
The ghats at Varanasi, which were captured on foot and step down to the river in a way no aerial view conveys.
Hampi, where the ruins are spread across boulders over several kilometres rather than gathered in one site.
Nashik and Vadodara, which rarely appear in travel writing and are on Street View precisely because the local partners went there first.
Places to open
4 locations in India, each one a single click into Street View at the right spot and facing the right way.
Questions about Street View in India
Why did Street View take so long to reach India?
It was refused on security grounds in 2011 and stayed refused. The National Geospatial Policy of 2021 changed what Indian companies could collect and own, which made a launch possible in July 2022 through local partners rather than through Google's own cars.
Which Indian cities have Street View?
It launched with ten: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar and Amritsar, and has expanded since. Coverage follows cities rather than the road network, so gaps between them are normal.