The proposed Rs 16,000-crore Pune-Nashik high-speed rail project could jeopardise the operations of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), the world’s largest radio telescope located near Pune.
The Ministry of Railways gave ‘in-principle’ approval to the project, being executed by Maharail, on February 5. If the project is implemented, the rail route would cut through the GMRT array of 30 parabolic antennas installed in a ‘Y’ fashion across 30 km in a radio-quiet region in Pune district’s Narayangaon area.
The GMRT site is situated off the Pune-Nashik highway and was painstakingly chosen by an eminent jury of scientists, including late Govind Swarup, in the early 1980s for posing minimal man-made noise and found suitable for being favourable for long-term operations of a sensitive radio observatory.
