In what is being talked about as a major development and global recognition phenomena for the City of Lakes, two noted scientists, C S Unnikrishnan , Senior Scientist at the TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) and Sharad Gawker, former Deputy Director of Geological Survey of India, arrived at Udaipur yesterday (12 April 2012) afternoon.

The purpose of the visit is to select suitable land for the establishment of the Gravitational Wave Observatory, which has been proposed to be built in Udaipur.

“A primary requirement for choosing the area will be that the location needs an unobstructed flat area of 4km on either side of the observatory and the area selected needs to be “L” shaped. We intend to visit two more locations in Rajasthan, including Udaipur”, said Unnikrishnan, one of the visiting scientists.

In what is also said to be one of the most advanced science projects in India, the location for the same should present a low seismic activity and natural calamity probability, along with scant population. Further, the area needs to be receiving low rain fall, as rain fall distracts the waves and makes it difficult to collect data.

Unnikrishnan, in his talk with the present media personnel said, “The observatory works basically to track gravitational waves. It will be of help to current and future students of science as well as be of assistance to industrialists.”

“It will truly be a project having immense national collaboration, where on one side of the project, a 55 year old person will be leading the high level management team, and on the other side, a 20 year old science student can also be a part of this project,” said Unnikrishnan.

in photo: S. Unnikrishnan, SNA Jaffery and Sharad Gawker

“We will be going to two more locations in Rajasthan. After seeing the locations in Udaipur, we will proceed to Kishangarh (Central University) and then we will visit IIT Jodhpur. This is an initial land survey and nothing will be finalized yet. We are just visiting different cities of the country including Karnataka, Andhra, Maharashtra, etc.

This project is of such importance and huge dimension, that the United States is donating the observatory to India. To be operated under an Indo-US joint collaboration, the project is expected to take around 8 years to completion, and one of the biggest challenges is to maintain the land for at least 15 years, as said by the visiting scientists.

Further, it will take around a year of travel around the country to finalize locations.

The scientists also emphasized that the previous two projects on gravitational observatory did not succeed as the tracking of the waves were not optimal, as the gravitational waves were very weak and difficult to trap.

The scientists are staying at Hotel near Fatehpura and have already visited Mavli Tehsil, Sakruja Ker Village, Pavata village, Sukhwara, Vallabhnagar, Gotipa, Mandol and Puriakeri.