A major research facility that would study various gravitation waves to detect most violent events in the Universe is coming up in the Hingoli district of Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
The Rs 3,000 crore mega project is in Aundha Nagnath area of Hingoli. The Laser Interferometer Gravitation-wave Observatory (LIGO) is one of the biggest astronomy mega-science venture in joint collaboration with LIGO Laboratories, USA.
LIGO is the world's leading observatory designed to detect gravitational waves from the most violent events in the Universe.
In India, the project is jointly funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
"As much as 99% cent of the land acquisition is complete and the file has gone to the Prime Minister's Office for final approval," said Arun Srivastava, secretary to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
Environmental clearance for the project has been received. "We expect the project to be commissioned by 2025," Srivastava told DH on Monday.
It may be recalled, an MoU to set up the LIGO-India project was signed between the scientists from the US’ National Science Foundation, DAE and DST in April 2016.
The LIGO-India project will be jointly coordinated and executed by three premier Indian lead institutions viz., the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar and the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore. Some of the universities in the country will also participate in the project.
The project will bring unprecedented opportunity to the researchers and scientists to dig deeper into the Universe.