India-based Neutrino Observatory is going to be built in Tamil Nadu, in Bodi West hills. The INO website itself was informative in answering the question here.

I live in Kolar Gold Fields, where the previous neutrino experimental lab was located. The mine (BGML), where the experiments were conducted, 2000m underground, was shut down; and along with it, the TIFR facility had to leave too. We have had no environment related problems here. Touch wood.

Is it a bane? Why would you ask that?

1. Radiation from the Lab could pose a threat to the biodiversity around. There will be no radiation emitting from the lab; the lab is that deep in the earth to keep out radiation (to study environmental neutrinos without the interference of cosmic radiation).
2. The mountain may become unstable. As INO scientists have said, the lab will not affect the structural stability of the mountain. The tunnel will be tiny, when compared to the underground mines (with its numerous shafts) that was operational in KGF for more than a 100 years. While making the tunnel, the technological advancement will ensure that the environment is left untouched; at the most, the rock blasting will cause flutters, but that won’t last long, and normalcy will be restored in no time.
3. There will be hazardous chemicals and gases. To ensure safety of the experiment and the people working in the lab (needless to mention, the environment and the people living nearby), the gases (which are not hazardous in their quantity and which comply with international standards) will be recycled many times and only then let off in controlled amounts. The equipment and the gases used for the experiment will be hermetically sealed, so there’s no chance of any pollution/contamination from there.

Is it a boon?

1. Fundamental Science laboratory set up, and the scientists and students working in the lab, will inevitably mean a township will be created around the lab. This, as in any township (say, Powergrid, SAIL), will mean more employment for the people living nearby (labour, people who manage the day-to-day upkeep of the area), and more ‘demand’ in the market for goods and services (for example, the vegetable market, taxi services, ticket booking services etc).
2. Setting up the laboratory itself means heavy employment opportunity in constructing it.
3. The floating population of scientists in the lab will bring in a richer demand to the market around; maybe even tourism.
4. The prospects of setting up research institutes around the lab are immense.
5. Bodi West Hills just got put into the scientific community’s map. Should the lab yield substantive results..

To the people living nearby (the lab is now a typical site of construction; approach roads are being constructed right now), the lab simply means, in the words of an auto-rickshaw driver, “that industry that they’re constructing in the hills”.