TN, K'taka to host Rs 600cr neutrino study facilities

Mysore in Karnataka and Masanagudi in Tamil Nadu will jointly host a Rs 600-crore neutrino research centre in collaboration with the Institute of Mathematical Science, Chennai.

While the caves at a depth of 2,000 feet in Masanagudi have been found ideal for locating a Rs 440-crore neutrino research laboratory, the Mysore University campus has been chosen for establishing a Rs 160-crore neutrino observatory by the experts.

The observatory, to be set up on Manasagangotri campus, will analyse the data sent from the Masanagudi laboratory with which the post-graduate department of physics and its students will be associated.

Mysore University vice-chancellor J Shashidhara Prasad said on Sunday that the project will be sponsored by a consortium of 15-20 leading research institutions led by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

Another major project in the pipeline is the establishment of Ramanujan Mathematical Society in collaboration with the Association of Discrete Mathematics.

The Department of Science & Technology (DST), which is left with around Rs 70 crore, has come forward to fund the society. The society currently functions from two different places, including one from Chennai. It has proposed to have a common centre in the Manasagangotri campus in Mysore. The DST may provide Rs 5 crore for the proposed centre.

The university also plans to build a guest house to accommodate 150 guests and an examination centre (Pariksha Bhavan) for seating 600 evaluators, the vice-chancellos said, briefing the press on the university's activities since 2003 and its future plans.

The university has taken up the construction of the Rs 70 lakh Jagjivanram Research Centre on the campus for which the UGC has provided Rs 65 lakh and Mysore MP Vijaya Shankar Rs 5 lakh from his MP fund.

The university, which pioneered distance education in the state and gave it up after the establishment of the Karnataka State Open University, is reviving distance education courses from June next, Prasad said.

Another project taken up is the rejuvenation of high school education. A committee of citizens concerned, along with the university faculty, has been formed and some NRIs had agreed to support the programme.

The university, the only one in the country to be given the A+ grading status by the National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC), has sought the central university status, he added.