It would also help track down areas with potential subsidence or leaking pipes, he said.
The GIS 2D applications, now being used by some water and electricity companies, could only show images of the surface of constructions, he said.
A shortage of data on underground infrastructure and an overlapping of responsibilities in the management of urban infrastructure were responsible for unsystematic planning and poor quality of public work construction in the city, said Nguyen Van Hiep, deputy director of HCM City's Department of Construction.
There were six departments and agencies in charge of urban infrastructure management in the city, Hiep said.
They failed to share data on urban infrastructure with each other, leading to repeated digging up of the same road for different works, he said.
Many incidences of road surfaces subsiding suddenly without warning had taken place in the city late last year, he added.
Officials are hoping that the new system will help streamline the planning and execution of underground works and spare residents the difficulties caused by haphazard execution of such projects.
VNS