The $1.47-billion (Rs 9,826 crore) project to build the world’s largest and most powerful telescope might find its home in India, the Times of India reported on Saturday. Named the 'Thirty Meter Telescope', the project is being run by the TMT observatory, which has shortlisted Hanle in Ladakh as a possible site for the device. Major protests by locals starting 2014 had forced them out of the original spot in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. According to the report, a team from the observatory is expected to visit Ladakh in a few months.

India is building software, edge sensors, actuators and system support for the TMT observatory, and might invest $212 million (Rs 1,417 crore) in the project. TMT India programme director B Eswar Reddy told TOI that two prospective sites had been chosen, the one in Ladakh and another in Chile. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, and two government departments having been working on the project since 2013.

The TMT Observatory claims it will be "the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on Earth". The scientists believe it will help astronomers to study the solar system, Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxies, and even those forming "at the edge of the observable Universe".

In 2014, the people of Hawaii had objected to the project and blocked construction saying the earmarked site was sacred to them. Protests prevented all subsequent efforts to restart construction. In 2015, Hawaii's Supreme Court had invalidated the TMT's building permits, saying the due process was not followed when they were granted.