The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) undergoes testing on Nov. 26, 2015 in Pingtang County, China. (Photo : Getty Images)
Authorities from south China's Guizhou Province has announced plans to move 8,000 people from their homes to make way for the world's largest radio telescope, which is slated for completion in September this year.
The people to be transferred are from eight villages in Pingtang, Qiannan Buyi, and Miao autonomous prefecture, local officials told the state-owned Global Times newspaper on Wednesday.
With a dish covering an area the size of 30 football fields, the Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is made of a total of 4,450 panels. Scientists have described it as a super-sensitive "ear" that is capable of spotting very weak signals - if there are any - from the deep reaches of space.
Once it is completed in September, FAST will require radio silence within a 5-kilometer radius in order to function properly.
The government has allocated a budget of 1.8 billion yuan ($269 million) taken from the national poverty relief fund and bank loans. Approximately a third of those being resettled are living under the poverty lines and meet the state's requirements for resettlement, Jiang Xiaoxiang, deputy head of Pingtang County, told the Global Times.
More than 600 apartments have been constructed in two new settlements, which are about 10 kilometers from the original homes of the villagers to be relocated.
The villagers will also receive compensation in the form of cash or new housing. Those who have lost their lands during the construction of the telescope will also be compensated, Jiang said.
Jobs in tourism and support services for the FAST project will be offered to residents who will be relocated, he added.
Construction of the FAST started in March 2011 at a cost of 1.2 billion yuan.
Once it has been completed, the telescope will be the largest in the world, surpassing that of the 300-meter Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
