16. What happens when there is an earthquake or rock burst?

Deep underground places are often one of the safest locations when an earthquake happens.

The occupied areas underground will have a refuge area. This is a room designed to safely isolate people, who then wait for rescue.

A tunnel failure is almost unimaginable especially in the rocks found in the Nilgiri mountains. This is the main reason to locate the laboratory in the present location. During construction weak structures will be identified and secured using many available reinforcing technologies like rock bolts, shotcreting, etc. The portal, especially, has to be designed to withstand rock falls from outside. The present location indeed is one such where there is unlikely to be rock fall.