Water woes hit planetarium plan for Ranchi village

Ranchi: The construction of planetarium at regional science centre in Chiraundi village, Morhabadi is moving at snail pace because of lack of water. The foundation stone for the planetarium was laid by former chief minister Hemant Soren in 2014 and the work was expected to be finished by 2017.
"We had dug four borewells to provide water for the ongoing construction but failed to find water even after boring upto 1,500 ft.We have been managing water through water tankers which gets water from the Boreya river nearby," said an official from National Council of Science Museums at the site.
Being constructed by NCSM at a cost of Rs 27 crore, the planetarium, first in Jharkhand, is being built in the regional science centre campus covering an overall built up area of 12,000 sq metres. In addition, MoU for building another one in Dumka was signed between the department of science and technology and NCSM in June 2015. In addition to constructing the planetarium in Ranchi and Dumka, proposal to construct one in Deoghar, Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad has also been forwarded to the minister.
"Civil work on the basic structure has already been completed and work on the dome will be starting soon. We are using ready mix concrete to cast the dome of the planetarium so water won't be an issue. The building will be ready for opening at the scheduled time. We will also be constructing more such planetariums in the state, proposal for which has already been forwarded to the ministry," said Jwala Mahato, assistant director, department of science and technology.