Bhubaneswar/Rayagada: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for a planetarium at Rayagada and for a district science centre at Jeypore in Koraput, Wednesday.
The planetarium project will cost Rs 15 crore while Rs 6.5 crore will be spent on the district science centre project. Chief Minister laid the foundation stone through videoconferencing from Bhubaneswar.
Science and Technology Minister Ashok Chandra Panda, Principal Secretary of the Department Santosh Kumar Sarangi along with other dignitaries were present in the function at Rayagada.
The Chief Minister said that new generation should try to have scientific mindset in their life. He said, “We have plans to set up six planetariums in six districts and district science centre in each district and for that Rs 100 crore will be spent.
Panda said that planetariums in the state play a big role in encouraging scientific mindset of the science and space enthusiast. “Through these planetariums and science centres, we will hopefully encourage more scientific minds of the state,” he added.
At present, the state has two planetariums at Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur. Apart from Rayagada, the other districts which would have planetariums are: Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Ganjam, Rourkela and Bolangir.
Each planetarium project will cost Rs 15 crore.
The 10 districts where the science centres will come up are: Jeypore, Baripada, Rayagada, Keonjhar, Ganjam, Puri, Bhadrak, Bolangir, Nayagarh and Jagatsinghpur in first phase.
The government has plans to establish the district science centres in all the districts.
PNN