An office for engineers and scientists attached to the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory will start functioning in a rented building at Palanichettipatti near here from April 1, according to sources.
The sources said the project work would commence in April as the Centre had sanctioned Rs. 1,500 crore for this purpose. The first phase of the project period was 2015-16. The technical team would start preliminary work from this office, they added.
Construction of a building for an Inter-Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics (IICHEP) at Vadapalanji near Madurai would also commence on April 1 for operationalising the underground laboratory and detector, research and development and human resource development.
At present, the INO project office had been functioning in a building in a private engineering college in Madurai. The project aimed at building a world class underground laboratory at Pottipuram near Thevaram in Bodi block in Theni district, primarily to study neutrinos, the sources added.
Already, scientists and project officials had met different sections of people, especially school and college students in the district, apprising them of the importance the project and safety measures taken by them during the construction of lab. Moreover, there would not be any environmental or ecological impact, they stressed.
A total of 21 institutions, including Aligarh Muslim University, Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, The University of Calicut, Punjab University, Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Delhi University, The American College, Madurai, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Indian Institute of Technology – Mumbai, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, The University of Mysore, and Banaras Hindu University had been working for setting up a 50-kton magnetised Iron Calorimeter Detector to study the properties of neutrinos, they added.
