Observational astronomy institute to come up in WB's Purulia

Eastern India's first observational astronomy institute would come up in the Ayodhya Hills of Purulia district of West Bengal, Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan has said.
He said that the SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS) will be implementing the project, the land for which has been acquired and necessary clearances obtained.
He made the announcement during his visit to Kolkata today where he said that SNBNCBS, supported by the Department of Science and Technology, has already recruited a couple of talented young astronomers for the facility.
Vardhan said that the setting up of an observatory in eastern India was long overdue.

Noting that the country's first astronomical observatory was installed at St Xavier's College, Kolkata, in the 1880s, he said that many private observatories subsequently came up although these could not sustain themselves.
During his visit to the West Bengal state capital, the minister visited Bose Institute and said that the new campus of the institute would be ready by March 31 next year.