Modi opens India's first LED-dome planetarium in Mysuru, tours the Sky Theatre with Sitharaman and Shivakumar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first LED-dome planetarium in Mysuru on Friday, November 13, cutting the ribbon at the entrance of the COSMOS-Mysuru Planetarium on Friday afternoon and then walking through the building with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It was the last programme of a Karnataka day that began in Bengaluru with the Pink Line metro and ₹15,600 crore of projects, and it closes a project that took more than four years from foundation stone to opening.

The planetarium, built by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), stands on the University of Mysore campus at the foothills of Chamundi Hills. Modi was received at the Lalitha Mahal helipad by Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar. Governor Sudha Yadav, Urban Development Minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah, who is the Mysuru district in-charge minister, and Mysuru-Kodagu MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar were among those present.

What Modi did inside

After the ribbon-cutting, Sitharaman briefed the Prime Minister on the facility and took him on a tour. He then sat down with the other dignitaries to watch a show in the Sky Theatre, the dome auditorium, and met astronomers and space scientists from Ladakh, according to reports from Mysuru. No text of any remarks by the Prime Minister at the venue had been released by the time this report was filed. The Prime Minister’s Office had said he would address the gathering.

What the Press Information Bureau says it is

The official description, in the release issued on Wednesday, November 11, calls it “the first LED Dome planetarium in India”. Its dome is 15 metres across and tilted, and carries about 6,150 LED panels holding 4.2 crore individual LEDs. Unlike a projector-based planetarium, where light is thrown on a white surface, the LED panels can be controlled in real time.

The Sky Theatre will run astronomy programmes in Kannada, English and Hindi, along with an in-house film on the history of Mysuru and its link with astronomy. The building also has exhibition halls, a museum of astronomy models and artefacts, a lecture hall, a training centre and interactive outdoor exhibits. The release describes it as an astronomy education and training centre that will complement the IIA’s research and national outreach programmes.

How it got here

Sitharaman laid the foundation stone on March 6, 2022, and gave ₹5 crore from her MPLADS funds. The Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Space also backed the project, and the University of Mysore gave about three acres. The opening date slipped from September 2025 to February 2026 and then to this week. Our preview of the planetarium has the full history.

COSMOS planetarium

1. March 6, 2022Sitharaman lays the foundation stone
2. September 2025Opening target, as reported in December 2024
3. January 13, 2026Civil works done; opening expected in February 2026
4. November 11, 2026PIB announces the inauguration
5. November 13, 2026Prime Minister inaugurates it

The cost and the claims

What it cost depends on who is asked. Reports in January 2026 put it at about ₹85 crore, others at about ₹91 crore, and Wadiyar said at a press conference on November 9 that it was ₹115 crore. The IIA’s own project page gives no total, so the final bill is not confirmed. The sums came from several Union departments, the Swadesh Darshan tourism scheme and MPLADS funds.

The organisers also call it the world’s first tilted LED-dome planetarium. That is their own description. The IIA says only two public installations of this type exist, both in Japan, and that Mysuru is the first tilted one supplied to an independent customer.

Wadiyar called it “a major addition to the city’s educational, scientific and tourism infrastructure” and said it should draw about five lakh visitors a year, with two to three shows a day for students and tourists and paid tickets for tourists.

A forest launched the same day

Sitharaman also launched the Bharat Vann afforestation project at K C Layout in Mysuru on Friday under the “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” campaign. She planted a sapling and spoke to students. The project aims to plant two lakh saplings on 17.63 acres by the Miyawaki method of dense native planting, with CSR funds from the State Bank of India and the SBI Foundation. The Prime Minister’s schedule had listed a tree-planting at the site at about 3:30 pm; the only report of the launch names Sitharaman, and does not mention a plantation by Modi.

Why it matters to visitors

For Mysuru, long known for its palace and Dasara, the planetarium adds a science attraction in a city that gets heavy tourist traffic, and the IIA says it wants to run astronomy outreach in Kannada and in rural Karnataka, and to use the dome to display data from Indian telescopes. Ticket prices and the date from which the public can enter have not been announced.

What comes next

The tour continues on Saturday, November 14, when Modi goes to the Ambaji Temple in Banaskantha district, Gujarat, one of the 51 Shakti Peethas. The release gives no timings for the Gujarat visit. In Mysuru, show timings and ticket rates are the next announcement awaited. Until the dome opens to the public, the IIA will continue its astronomy education programmes in Mysuru and nearby areas.