Foundation stone for ISRO’s Advanced Radar Research Centre to be laid in Assam's Chandrapur today: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday, September 21 announced that the foundation stone for the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Advanced Radar Research Centre under Project NETRA will be laid at Chandrapur in Assam, marking the establishment of a major space-related infrastructure facility in the state.

Sarma made the announcement in a social media post on September 21, describing the facility as a strategic project aimed at strengthening India’s capabilities in tracking objects in space and safeguarding critical space assets.

“Today, we will lay the foundation stone of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Advanced Radar Research Centre at Chandrapur, Assam,” Sarma said.

The facility is being established as part of ISRO’s Network for Space Object Tracking and Analysis (NETRA) programme, which focuses on space situational awareness and monitoring of space objects. ISRO has identified a 67-acre site at Chandrapur for the radar facility. According to ISRO’s 2025-26 annual report, the land transfer was executed in November 2023 and final registration was completed on November 7, 2025.

Project NETRA is aimed at strengthening India’s ability to monitor the increasingly crowded space environment and protect its satellites and other space assets. ISRO has identified a radar, an optical telescope facility and a centralised control centre as key components of the programme.

The ISRO SSA Control Centre, which serves as the hub for space situational awareness activities, was established in Bengaluru in 2020. The system is designed to support activities including space-object tracking, orbit determination, collision-avoidance alerts and monitoring of satellite and rocket-body re-entry.

Sarma said the establishment of the radar facility in Assam reflected the state’s growing role in hosting advanced national infrastructure.

“For a state once considered far from India’s major centres of technology, it is deeply satisfying to see Assam today becoming home to such cutting-edge national infrastructure,” he said.

The chief minister also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for selecting Assam for the strategic project.