High-Energy Physics Gets A $235 Mn Leg-Up In India
MUMBAI: High-energy physics in India is set for a 
1,500 crore ($235 million) boost in the shape of a laboratory for studying neutrinos - subatomic particles produced by the decay of radioactive elements in the atmosphere, a project that aims to make this country a global hub for high-end scientific experiments.
The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project has been cleared by the union cabinet, its director, Naba K. Mondal, said.
The underground project, which will come up near Pottipuram village in Theni district on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, will comprise a complex of caverns - the main cavern, which will house the current detector, will be 130 metres long, 26 metres wide and 30 metres high. There will be two smaller caverns to be used for setting up experiments for neutrino double detector and dark matters, Mondal said. The complex will be approached by a two-km long tunnel.
Simultaneously an Inter-Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics will come up in Madurai, about 110 kilometres from the observatory.
Mondal said India will also seek international participation in the project so that it turns out to be an international hub for high-end research like the CERN in Geneva. At the same time, Indian participation will continue in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project.
"We have not done this kind of high-end physics projects in the past after the Kolar Gold Field project was closed down. So first we have to convince the global community that we are serious," he said.
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