The site selection activities began in 2000 before the formal approval of the project in 2004. Over 30 sites have been visited and seeing observations were conducted in some of them. Later 4 sites were chosen for simultaneous seeing monitoring for 2 years. With two sites in hand after the conclusion of the site selection (2000-2007) INO made seeing measurements to be able to compare the two sites, Dinava ~3000m and Gargash ~3610m. In 2011, INO announced Mount Gargash as the site for this project. The site became road accessible in 2016..