KOLKATA: After being shut for over seven months, museums and galleries are set to reopen on November 10, following the go-ahead from the ministry of culture.
The restrictions that will be imposed include a curb on the number of people being allowed on the premises at a time, shorter hours and shutting certain facilities or exhibits for the moment. Online purchasing of tickets will be encouraged at the museums, which will have to follow rules of masked entry, hand sanitization, temperature check and social distancing.
At Victoria Memorial Hall, the timings have been shortened by an hour in the mornings and evenings and 500 people will be allowed on the lawns and 200 inside the museum at a time. This will be monitored through sales of tickets.The first floor would be shut for now and there would be no indoor programme, though open air events would start looking at the demand, said curator Jayanta Sengupta.
Indian Museum visitors will have to follow a route channel to different halls. Not over 20 people will be allowed inside big halls and 10 in smaller ones. The lobbies will also be monitored. “We will not leave everything to guards and officials will be on the move,” said director Arijit Dutta Chowdhury.
Science City, too, has curtailed timings by three hours and 500 visitors will be allowed in each of the two slots, one from 10am to 2pm and the other from 2pm to 6pm. Not more than 20 people will be allowed inside a hall. Space Theatre will be shut for now. Director Shubhobrata Chowdhury said they would have pedal sanitiser machines, pedal-operated basins and people can operate interactive exhibits on apps. Similar changes have been brought in at BITM.