China to evacuate thousands for ‘world’s largest telescope’

This file picture taken on July 29, 2015, shows the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) under construction in Pingtang, Guizhou. China will move nearly 10,000 people to make way for the world’s largest radio telescope which promises to help humanity search for alien life, state media reported. FAST is due to start operation this year. AFP

The People’s Republic of China is expected to relocate more than 9,000 residents to give way for the ongoing construction of the world’s largest radio telescope, Xinhua news agency reported.

China’s official press agency said the evacuation of thousands from the Guizhou province in the southwest was facilitated by a proposal of members of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference last year for the “protection” of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope or FAST.

CPPCC Guizhou Provincial Committee secretary general Li Yuecheng was quoted as saying that the evacuation was necessary “to create a sound electromagnetic wave environment.”

The Xinhua report said the provincial government of Guizhou would relocate 9,110 residents to Pingtang and Luodian counties in four settlements by the end of September.

It added that affected residents would receive 12,000 yuan or $1,838 subsidy from the provincial reservoir and eco-migration bureau, while every ethnic minority household with “housing difficulties” would get 10,000 yuan subsidy from the provincial ethnic and religious committee.

The construction of the 1.2-billion yuan FAST started in March 2011, and is expected to be completed by September. It is eyeing to break the record of Puerto Rico’s 300-meter Arecibo Observatory as the world’s largest radio telescope. RC