The facts
- In February 2023, the Union Railway ministry gave in-principle approval to the Pune-Nashik high-speed railway project. This has scientists at the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) facility worried.
- The GMRT is a unique radio-frequency astronomical research facility near Narayangaon in Pune district, put together by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) under the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
The context
- According to the NCRA, Narayangaon was selected as the location for the project after extensive research and due to benefits like low human-origin radio noise, good communication facilities, and industrial and educational infrastructure in the vicinity.
- “A geographical latitude sufficiently north of the geomagnetic equator in order to have a reasonably quiet ionosphere and yet be able to observe a good part of the southern sky as well” also favoured Narayangaon as the apt location for setting up GMRT, according to the NCRA website.
- This could change once the construction and operation of the high-speed railway link begins. The railway line will slice through GMRT’s array, reaching as close as around 960 metres to some antenna, the journal Science reported.
- The pantograph, an instrument attached to the top of electric rail engines, is used to make and break contact with an overhead electrical line and the resultant sparks and electromagnetic bursts could flood the window of radio signals, the report added. Wireless railway communication could also disrupt GMRT operations.
Why it matters
- Even though the GMRT is almost 30 years old, it is the biggest and most sensitive radio interferometer in the world at low frequencies (less than 1 GHz).
- GMRT is used by astronomers from around the world to study distant galaxies, pulsars and neutron stars, etc. and to make important discoveries like an explosion in the Ophiuchus cluster, the biggest ever seen in the universe.
