Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has secured a major contract to construct India’s ambitious Ligo observatory, a mega science project aimed at detecting gravitational waves from powerful cosmic events such as black hole mergers and neutron star collisions.
The order has been awarded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The observatory will be built at Aundha in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district and is expected to be completed within 48 months.
Two business verticals of L&T, Heavy Civil Infrastructure (HCI) and Heavy Engineering (HE), will jointly execute the project. Their scope includes the engineering, procurement and construction of highly specialised, vibration-sensitive civil infrastructure required for the observatory’s precise measurements.
WHAT IS LIGO?
Ligo, short for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a sophisticated scientific instrument designed to detect gravitational waves, tiny ripples in space-time first predicted by Albert Einstein over a century ago.
These waves are generated by cataclysmic cosmic events, such as the collision of black holes or exploding stars, billions of light-years away.
To detect these faint signals, Ligo uses multi-kilometre-long tunnels equipped with laser interferometers. Laser beams are sent down long vacuum tubes and reflected back. Even the slightest disturbance, smaller than the width of a proton, can indicate the passage of a gravitational wave.
India’s Ligo will feature an 8-kilometre ultra-high vacuum beam tube system. L&T will manufacture and install these precision-engineered tubes, along with critical vacuum infrastructure.
The project also includes integration of mechanical, electrical, HVAC, fire protection, vacuum control and monitoring systems.
The Indian facility will operate in collaboration with the Ligo Laboratory in the United States, with support from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
On the Indian side, leading institutions such as the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) and the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) are key partners.
The Ligo India project is considered one of the country’s flagship mega science initiatives. Once operational, it will strengthen the global network of gravitational wave detectors and improve scientists’ ability to pinpoint the location of cosmic events.
For L&T, the order reinforces its growing role in delivering complex infrastructure projects in science and technology. For India, it marks another step toward becoming a major contributor to cutting-edge global research into the mysteries of the universe.
