8 months after inauguration, Birsa museum a non-starter

Ranchi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had virtually inaugurated the restored Ranchi Central Jail, where Birsa Munda was hanged by the British, on November 15, 2021, but the Rs 25-crore museum on the premises is yet to be opened to public.
The delay happened because the Jharkhand government’s department of urban development has failed to find a private party to run the facility under the public private-partnership mode. It was the first of eight such museums, which will be opened by the Union tribal affairs ministry nationally.
“I came to Ranchi this week on a family visit. I wanted to visit the museum as I had read about its inauguration last year. But I was disappointed to see that while the park and landscape are open to visitors, the museum isn’t,” Ankan Bawali, a native of Durgapur in West Bengal, said.
The museum on the 200-year-old jail campus also comprises 12 bronze statues of other tribal revolutionaries who were tried and hanged by the colonisers. The museum complex sits on a 100-acre garden, complete with seating arrangements, a water body, a 25ft-high statue of Munda, a cafeteria and a space for light and sound programmes.
Combined with the park and the museum, the project took eight years to complete at a net expense of Rs 103 crore.
“The park remains open to visitors from 10:30 am to 5 pm every day and the visit is free for now. A lot of college students come here during breaks in their classes and occasionally, a few tourists also come. But we have to turn them away when they ask about the museum,” Pankaj Kumar, a private security guard, said.
While the cafeteria and the light and sound systems are yet to open, a handful of security guards deployed by the Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company (JUIDCO) fend off the night urchins and troublemakers who try to enter the premises by scaling the iron walls of the periphery.
“Two tenders were floated to fetch bids for running the facility under the PPP mode but none evinced interest. Preparations are underway to float a third tender very soon,” Ashutosh Singh, the public relations officer of JUIDCO, said.