Planetarium may open in March

BHUBANESWAR: Those who are waiting for the planetarium in the city to open, may have to wait till March. Pathani Samanta Planetarium was closed in August for renovation. Since then many visitors, unaware of the closure, visit the planetarium just to be told to come back later. The renovation work which was initially scheduled to be completed by December, is not over yet and is expected to take more time.  A major overhaul is taking place in the planetarium and everything from carpets, chairs and plants to the equipments are being renovated. Any equipment that is more than 20 years old is being replaced. The new equipments will be imported from the USA. A global tender was floated for this purpose. The State Government is funding the renovation drive.   While the project   is estimated to cost `  9 crore, ` 4 crore alone will be the cost of the equipment. A new projector, capable of projecting 3-dimensional images will be the new attraction at the planetarium. It is called new digital technology of planetarium projection system. The complete audio system will also be digitised. The rest of the amount will be spent on renovation of infrastructure which is being handled by IDCO.  “Quality of the show will improve after renovation,” said deputy director of the planetarium Suvendu Patnaik. The people visiting the planetarium will have the freedom to choose from six different shows in a day. Previously, this was not possible owing to lack of technology. After the digitising, the show can be changed simply by changing it in the computer.