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India-based Neutrino Observatory
India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a particle physics research project under
construction to primarily study atmospheric neutrinos in a 1,300 meters (4,300 ft) deep
cave under Ino Peak near Theni, Tamil Nadu, India. This project is notable in that it is
anticipated to provide a precise measurement of neutrino mixing parameters. The project
is a multi-institute collaboration and one of the biggest experimental particle
physics projects undertaken in India.
The project was originally to be completed in 2015 at an estimated cost of 1,500 crores,
has been cleared by the Ministry of Environment (India) for construction in the Bodi West
Hills Reserved Forest in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu. Although delayed, the project is
underway As of 2015. When completed, the main magnetized iron calorimieter (ICAL)
experiment include the world's most massive magnet, four times larger than the 12,500-
tonne magnet in the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
Large Hadron Collider
History and recent developments in the project
The possibility of a neutrino observatory located in India was discussed as early as 1989
during several meetings held that year. Since then this question comes up, off and on, in
many discussions. The issue was raised again in the first meeting of the Neutrino physics
and
Cosmology working
group during the
Workshop on High Energy
Physics
Phenomenology (WHEPP-6) held at Chennai in January 2000 and it was decided then to
collate concrete ideas for a neutrino detector. Further discussions took place in August
2000 during a meeting on Neutrino Physics at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics,
Kolkata, when a small group of neutrino physics enthusiasts started discussing the
possibilities. The Neutrino 2001 meeting was held in the Institute of Mathematical
April, 2016