Survey · Service
GPR Survey for Underground Utility Detection
Radar-based subsurface investigation that finds and maps buried cables, pipelines, ducts, voids and reinforcement before anyone breaks ground — delivered pan-India by 14 company-owned GPR systems and our own interpreting engineers.
Owned fleet only: 1.5 lakh+ km delivered, 100 km a day peak output and a best month of 700 KM in 30 days. Because mobilisation runs from Faridabad, sites beyond Delhi NCR carry a ₹1,00,000 per-project minimum. Inside NCR no minimum applies.
A note on terminology: the correct engineering term for this service is GPR — Ground Penetrating Radar. In India it is very often searched and written as “GPRS survey”, which is why that spelling also appears on this site. It should not be confused with GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), the cellular data technology.
Overview
Radar first, excavator second
A GPR antenna pushes short electromagnetic pulses into the ground and listens for what bounces back. Anything with a different electrical property to the surrounding soil — a steel pipe, an HDPE duct, an air-filled void, a concrete slab edge — returns a signature our engineers read as a hyperbola on the radargram. From that we build a plan of what is buried, where it runs and how deep it sits, without a single trial trench.
- Metallic and non-metallic targets located
- 14 company-owned radar systems, no rented kit
- Depth-annotated CAD and GIS output
- Reports written for authority submission
Applications
What our radar is put to work on
Underground Utility Detection
Cables, water and gas mains, sewers, ducts and abandoned services located and traced.
Underground Utility Detection
Cables, water and gas mains, sewers, ducts and abandoned services located and traced.
Concrete Scanning & Rebar Detection
Reinforcement, post-tension tendons and conduit found before coring, cutting or anchoring.
Concrete Scanning & Rebar Detection
Reinforcement, post-tension tendons and conduit found before coring, cutting or anchoring.
Void & Cavity Detection
Washouts under pavements, sinkhole precursors and loosened backfill picked up early.
Void & Cavity Detection
Washouts under pavements, sinkhole precursors and loosened backfill picked up early.
Pipeline & Leak Investigation
Buried pipe routes confirmed and saturated or washed-out zones around suspected leaks flagged.
Pipeline & Leak Investigation
Buried pipe routes confirmed and saturated or washed-out zones around suspected leaks flagged.
SUE & Pre-Excavation Clearance
Subsurface Utility Engineering deliverables to an agreed quality level before design freeze.
SUE & Pre-Excavation Clearance
Subsurface Utility Engineering deliverables to an agreed quality level before design freeze.
Pavement & Slab Profiling
Layer thickness and sub-base condition read along roads, aprons and industrial floors.
Pavement & Slab Profiling
Layer thickness and sub-base condition read along roads, aprons and industrial floors.
Sectors
Who calls us in
Telecom rollouts are where we began and still where most of our kilometres come from — but radar does not care what the buried asset carries, and neither do we. City gas distribution licensees need their steel and MDPE confirmed before a tie-in. Power utilities want HT feeders proved before a cable-laying gang starts. Water boards ask us to trace mains that were laid before anyone kept a drawing.
On the construction side, contractors bring us onto a plot before piling so that foundations are not designed over a live sewer. Metro and rail packages use us along alignments where a strike would stop revenue services. Highway and expressway teams want existing crossings picked up before widening. Refineries, fertiliser plants and large campuses call us for in-plant scans where hot work permits depend on knowing what runs beneath the paving.
Whatever the sector, the deliverable is the same idea: a route or a plot handed over with its unknowns removed. Explore GPR survey by city, see how the data becomes a drawing on our utility mapping page, or send us a scope.
Technical Specification
Equipment, method and output
| Primary method | Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), supported by electromagnetic locating (EML) where targets are metallic and traceable |
|---|---|
| Owned survey systems | 14 company-owned GPR units, cart-mounted and handheld |
| Antenna frequency | 250–400 MHz for typical utility depth; 100–250 MHz where deeper penetration matters; 1.6–2.6 GHz for concrete and slab scanning |
| Typical investigation depth | Commonly 1–3 m in favourable ground; markedly reduced in high-clay, saline or saturated soils |
| Detectable targets | OFC, power, gas, water, drainage, legacy telecom, reinforcement, voids — subject to material, size, depth and soil conditions |
| Positioning | Chainage-referenced traverses; DGPS or total-station tie-in where the client requires survey-grade coordinates |
| Scan pattern | Planned corridor traverses with cross-lines at every suspected crossing and at agreed grid intervals on open plots |
| Verification | Trial pits or vacuum excavation at critical crossings where the client or authority requires physical confirmation |
| Deliverables | Marked-up route drawing, depth-annotated utility plan, CAD (DWG/DXF), GIS output (SHP/KML) and a signed survey report |
| Standards reference | Planning and reporting aligned to PAS 128-style quality levels; the exact level is agreed and stated per project |
These figures describe standard capability and are confirmed project by project. Achievable depth and accuracy depend on ground conditions, utility density, site access and authority requirements, and are fixed in the approved method statement. GPR does not detect every buried asset in every ground condition — complementary locating methods and physical verification are used wherever accuracy is critical to safety or design.
Commercials
What decides the cost of a GPR survey
There is no single rate card for GPR work in India, because two jobs of the same length can differ threefold in effort. The variables that actually move a quotation are worth understanding before you compare offers.
Scale and shape of the site. A long linear corridor is priced per kilometre; an open plot or a plant area is priced per square metre or per day. Short mobilisations carry proportionally more cost than long ones, which is why we set a practical minimum scope rather than pretending a two-kilometre job costs the same per kilometre as a fifty-kilometre one.
Ground and congestion. Clean sandy ground with three services is quick. Old city centre with clay, rubble fill and a dozen overlapping utilities is slow, and needs tighter line spacing and more interpretation time.
Deliverable depth. A marked-up sketch for a gang to work from is one price. A coordinate-tied, depth-annotated CAD and GIS package written to an authority's submission format is another. SUE quality level, if specified, drives this directly.
Access and timing. Night working, traffic marshalling, permit-controlled plant areas and monsoon standby all add cost. So does client-required trial-pit verification, which is a separate civil activity.
Send your route length, city and the format your engineer or authority expects, and we will return an itemised figure rather than a per-kilometre number with conditions hidden underneath it.
Quality & Assurance
How survey data is checked before it leaves us
Every survey runs against a written scan plan agreed before mobilisation — line spacing, cross-line positions, calibration points and the depth-velocity assumption to be used. Field data is reviewed the same day by an engineer who did not collect it, so an ambiguous hyperbola is re-scanned while the crew is still on site rather than argued about later. Where a target is critical to the design or to a bore setout, it is flagged for physical verification and the drawing carries that status openly rather than presenting an inference as a fact. Draft drawings go back to the client for comment before the signed issue, and the final pack — radargram references, scan plan, drawing set and report — is archived so any figure can be traced back to the trace it came from. This sits inside our ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 management systems.
What twenty-two years on owned equipment adds up to
FAQ
GPR survey — common questions
In everyday Indian usage, yes — people asking for a “GPRS survey” almost always mean Ground Penetrating Radar. Strictly, GPRS is a cellular data standard and has nothing to do with subsurface work. We answer to both because that is how the enquiry arrives.
Typically one to three metres for utility-frequency antennas in reasonable ground. Dry sand and gravel let radar travel further; clay, black cotton soil and saline or waterlogged ground absorb the signal and can cut usable depth sharply. Any contractor quoting a fixed depth without asking about your soil is guessing.
Yes — this is the main reason GPR is used alongside electromagnetic locators, which only see conductive targets. Radar responds to the contrast between the pipe and the soil, so HDPE, PVC and even empty ducts can register. Detection is not guaranteed for every plastic pipe in every soil, which is why we state confidence on the drawing.
A depth-annotated utility drawing in DWG or DXF, GIS layers in SHP or KML if you work in GIS, a PDF set for circulation, and a signed report covering method, coverage, assumptions and limitations. Site markings in paint or pegs are provided where the crew needs to work directly off the ground.
No. The survey itself is entirely non-destructive — the antenna is wheeled or walked over the surface. Trial pits are only opened when a client or authority specifically wants a critical crossing physically confirmed, and that is quoted separately.
On open linear corridors with light congestion, a crew moves quickly; in dense urban ground with tight line spacing, progress is a fraction of that. We give a realistic daily figure against your specific route rather than a headline number, because the honest answer depends entirely on congestion and access.
Yes. Gas distribution, power utilities, water boards, metro and rail packages, highway widening, industrial plants and construction sites are all regular work for our survey teams. The radar and the reporting are the same; only the client's format changes.
On open ground with day and night shifts we have held up to 100 km a day using company-owned equipment. A single 30-day programme has delivered 700 KM, which remains our record. Overall we have surveyed in excess of 1.5 lakh km by radar. Realistic pace for a specific route is set by congestion, working windows and the deliverable agreed.
Specialist GPR Services
Radar work beyond utility corridors
Void & Cavity Detection
Washouts, settled backfill and cavities located before the surface gives way.
Void & Cavity Detection
Washouts, settled backfill and cavities located before the surface gives way.
Send us the route. We will tell you what is under it.
Share your alignment, city and the drawing format your engineer or authority expects — we will come back with scope, timeline and an itemised figure.
Request a GPR Survey QuoteGPR survey — method, output and detailed questions
Mezux Touch runs Ground Penetrating Radar as a detection method, not as a guarantee. Radar finds a buried object by the contrast between it and the material around it, which means it reads plastic pipe that an electromagnetic locator cannot see, and equally means it can miss a small target in ground that offers little contrast. Achievable depth ranges from about 1.5 metres in saturated coastal clay to 4 metres in dry sandy ground. Any contractor quoting one depth figure for all of India is quoting an equipment specification rather than a survey outcome.
How the work is run
Antenna frequency is chosen against the target rather than by default: a high-frequency system that resolves rebar in a slab will not reach a trunk main under two metres of fill, and a low-frequency system that reaches depth will not resolve the rebar. Line spacing follows the smallest target that matters to the client, since a grid set for a 300 mm main will step over a 50 mm service. Calibration is taken against the actual ground rather than a table value, because velocity varies with moisture and material. Interpretation is done by our own analysts rather than by the field crew alone, which is what stops a convenient reading being recorded as a finding.
What you receive
Layered CAD in DWG with each detected service on its own layer, carrying depth, detection method and confidence as attributes. GIS output in SHP or KML where a spatial record is held, and a PDF issue set. A signed report stating coverage achieved, achievable depth by section, areas of no access and every limitation encountered. Where a client needs positions defensible in a later dispute, raw radar data is archived so any plotted line remains traceable to the measurement behind it. Where radar alone cannot answer the question, the report says so and recommends electromagnetic locating or physical verification rather than presenting an inconclusive drawing as a result.
Beyond the basics
Can radar find plastic pipe? Yes, which is the main reason it is used alongside electromagnetic locating. Detection is not guaranteed in every soil, so we state confidence per feature rather than implying uniform certainty.
Why does depth vary so much between cities? Because conductive and saturated ground absorbs radar energy. Saline coastal clay may allow 1.5 metres where dry sandy ground allows four.
Is a GPR survey the same as a SUE survey? No. GPR is a detection method; SUE is a framework grading how utility information was obtained, from records only through to physical verification.
Can you survey without stopping work on site? Yes. The method is surface-based and non-intrusive, so production, traffic or trading continue, though access windows limit coverage.
What is not included as standard? Trial-hole excavation, permanent site marking and physical verification. Those are separate lines so a client can see exactly what has been priced.
Terms used on this page
Dielectric — the electrical property of ground that sets radar velocity, and therefore how a reflection converts to a depth. Antenna frequency — the radar frequency in use; higher resolves small shallow targets, lower reaches depth. Attenuation — the loss of signal strength with depth, which sets the practical investigation limit in any given ground. Confidence grade — a stated reliability level attached to each detected feature rather than a blanket claim. Time slice — a horizontal view of the data at one depth, used to read the plan pattern of buried services.
