The hunt for land to keep the world’s fifth high-energy synchrotron centre in Bengal has ended with the Mamata Banerjee government offering 70 acres in Kalyani just when the science crown seemed to be slipping out of the state’s grasp.

Bangalore, Mumbai and Indore are still in the race for the Rs 6,000-crore project, but the in-principle allotment of 70 acres in an education hub barely 50km from Calcutta strengthens Bengal’s case, sources said.

Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, which is anchoring the bid for the project, received a written confirmation about the land allotment from A.K. Singh, secretary to the land and land reforms department, on November 8.

“The state government has decided in principle for allocation of 70 acres of land at Kalyani, Nadia, in favour of SINP on LTS (long-term settlement) basis on payment as per norms,” states the letter to Milan Sanyal, the institute’s director.

Sanyal conveyed the availability of land to the department of atomic energy on Friday. “I sent a letter to the governing council today and a decision will be taken soon on the proposed project by the national-level committee and the scientific advisory council to the PM,” he told Metro.

Kalyani, a municipal town in Nadia that is part of greater Calcutta, is already an education and research destination because of Kalyani University, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research and the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics.

“We are very happy that the government has, in principle, agreed to give us land. This makes us a very strong contender for the project. The proposed site fits our need to be close to Calcutta and an international airport. It also has a scientific community and 20MW of uninterrupted power supply won’t be a problem, I am told,” Sanyal said.

If there’s a potential hitch, it’s the delay in finding a suitable site for a project that is billed as a “game-changer”.

“Had land been available in 2011 when the project was mooted, things would have been different. This long waiting period for land from 2011 to 2013 might make an unfavourable impression, but I am very optimistic,” Sanyal said.

The Telegraph had first highlighted the land challenge that threatened to take away the project from Bengal on June 9, 2012.

The government’s offer of land is on condition that Bengal is guaranteed the synchrotron project. The letter states that the government will send a proposed sketch of the land “shortly” and give possession only after it is finalised that the project will be in Bengal.

The proposal to build the world’s most advanced synchrotron in India had come up at a meeting at the SINP in November 2010, involving the directors of the four existing synchrotrons and the secretary of the department of atomic energy.

It was Sanyal who later drafted the proposal for the Planning Commission’s approval. Everything seemed to be going well until the Trinamul government’s hands-off policy on land acquisition came in the way.

India has two synchrotrons, Indus-I and Indus-II, but the proposed Indian Synchrotron for Material and Energy Research will be a pioneering facility. “The high-energy, high-brilliance third-generation electron synchrotron will be of 6 GeV strength with a beam circumference of about 1,490 metres and is intended to serve as a facility for national and international scientists,” a scientist said.

Synchrotrons, or particle accelerators, have applications across myriad platforms, ranging from engineering to biomedical research. “This one will help us keep young talent in Bengal; it will also help us bring back Indian scientists spread across the globe back to our land,” Sanyal said.