Chitradurga will be the next Science city
A new township on 8,000 Acres is being formed by IISc, Isro, DRDO, BARC. Chitradurga could be the science hot spot of the country as the major 4 institutions of India are setting their foot here in Challakere.
Challakere is 200 Kms from Bangalore where a integrated township spread on 8000 acres will be set up by Indian Space Research Organization, Defence Research and Development Organization, Indian Institute of Science and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. This will be first of its kinds and will create one of India’s largest science hubs.
The government has taken a good decision of not setting this up in Bangalore, which is already very congested. Also, other towns in the state need to get such opportunities. The economy in and around Chitradurga is set to change.
| Institution | Area | Facilities |
| IISc | 1,500 acres | Laboratories, specialized research centres, hostels. |
| ISRO | 473 acres | Communication and remote sensing facilities. |
| DRDO | 4,290 acres | Extensive aeronautical testing range. |
| BARC | 1,810 acres | Material enrichment facility. |
The setting of these institutions will generate a new equation between Bangalore and Chitradurga. Chitradurga is characterized by its stunning boulder-strewn landscape. The whole district lies in the valley of the Vedavati River, with the Tungabhadra river flowing in the Northwest.
This whole scenario will give a face lift for Chitrdurga which will see better roads within the city and between Bangalore and Chitradurga.
UAV Programme
The facilities will be path – breaking DRDO will be housing the cutting edge unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programme, in which it will be building and testing the latest class of UAVs for the country’s defense establishments. Additionally it will have an airstrip that would enable UAV’s to operate and potentially, even manned aircrafts that are small.
The BARC facility will be a key national resource in the country, where material enrichment will be undertaken. After Kaiga, Chitradurga BARC facility will be the second major nuclear center in the state. Here minerals like Uranium, Thorium, will are enriched to fuel nuclear plants.
Isro’s main focus will be on remote sensing and communication which will be equal to National remote sensing agency at Hyderabad.The center will be linked to space centers in USA and Europe and high volume of data transmission is expected between them.
IISc is planning to build a gigantic circular magnetic facility called a Synchrotron at a cost of Rs 2,000 crores. Here the eclectrons will be traveling at the speed of light. The circular facility is known as the Synchrotron where experiments would be conducted to develop better medical imaging equipment, aid drug discovery and research, develop therapies to treat cancer and also help understand the reaction of our living cells to drugs etc.
The Synchrotron will cover approximately an area of 100 acres and will have a circular tunnel. The facility can be deep within the ground or above. The facility at Chitradurga will have some similarities with the CERN facility in Geneva. The CERN facility deals with high-energy physics, while the one in Chitradurga will look at materials science and biology with range of 2.5 to 6 giga electron volts.
The absence of a next generation synchrotron is acutely felt in our country so we need to have one and our dependence abroad will come down.
What does a Synchrotron mean?
Synchrotron is an enclosed large circular magnetic tunnel like structure or facility built underground or above ground within which particles like electrons and protons are charged to travel at the speed of light.
The magnetic field will turn the particles so they circulate and the electric field will accelerate the particles.
They are carefully synchronized with the travelling particle beam. The tunnel or magnetic field covers hundreds of meters in diameter.
It will conduct fundamental experiments in science that will have impact on drug discovery, medical imaging, cancer therapies etc.