LISBON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The construction of the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), is scheduled to begin in January 2021, Portuguese Lusa News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The SKA "is a project worth around 900 million euros" and will start to be built "in January next year", with Portugal participating "in the construction with a quota that is under negotiation", Domingos Barbosa, coordinator of the national research infrastructure "Engage SKA" linked to the radio telescope initiative, was quoted as saying.

Barbosa added that although the construction of the SKA is scheduled for the beginning of 2021, "the massive scientific data" generated by the project, "will only arrive in five" or "six years".

The words came on the sideline of the inauguration ceremony of the Oblivion supercomputer which is associated with the SKA project.