VS asks Centre to stop setting up Neutrino observatory

"The Centre should come out with details of the project planned in the Western Ghats and discuss all environmental and other issues connected with the people and scientists before going ahead with the project," the CPI(M) veteran told reporters along with noted nuclear scientist V T Padmanabhan.

He alleged that the Centre had kept as secret the fact that the laboratory would come up deep inside the mountains in Idukki-Theni districts of Kerala and Tamil nadu.

Padmanabhan alleged that no environmental impact study had been done before giving approval for the Rs 1,300 crore project of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

He said as part of the experiment, high energy neutrinos from a Chicago factory would be beamed towards the centre in India to study changes occurring during the journey.

Tunnelling for the Centre would start soon, he said.

While the Tamil Nadu government's sanction has been obtained, Kerala has not even been informed, he added.

The huge project is being undertaken jointly by DAE and Department of Science and Technology with the participation of 25 leading research institutions in the country.

The Environment and Forests Ministry had accorded clearance in October 2010 for the project which will have an underground experimental facility to study neutrinos, the fundamental particles of nature.