Renovation of century-old Patna Museum to begin from next month

PATNA: The century-old museum of Patna, located at Buddh Marg, will be temporarily closed for the visitors likely by next month for the renovation work of the old structure. Under the modernization of Patna Museum project, the main building needs to be restored and its galleries will be rearranged to give a new look with the additional U-shaped new building, divided into north and south wings.
The renovation of the old building will include redesigning of the galleries without altering the building's heritage look, restoration of ceiling, roof and walls with the same material used in the old structure.
According to the regional deputy director of directorate of museum, art and culture department Vinay Kumar, the exterior design of the old building of Patna Museum will remain intact while the interior part will get a modern look. "For the facelift, all the artefacts and antiquities of the museum will be shifted with care to the storage room built in the new building at the campus. The new building is almost ready. The museum will be closed for public once we start shifting the collections from April onwards," he said.
He told this newspaper on Saturday that the old two-storey museum has around 20 galleries, which will go for the major revamp. "Both the buildings, old and new will be connected with each other with lifts and stairs. Once the renovation work will be completed, the galleries will be rearranged in a chronological order as per the historical timeline and periods or relics related to a person. It will be easy for public to view the collections in a better way. Presently, we are not following any timeline and most of the collections are in the storage due to space crunch," Kumar said.
The new building will extend the display area for the large collection of archaeological objects, coins, paintings, instruments, garments, bronze images and sculptures and terracotta images.
The G+1 building has been built over an area of 7,078sq metre, covering the left, right and back side of the Mughal and Rajput architecture building.
According to the officials, the museum has a collection of around 75,000 artefacts, including 25,000 old coins and around 4,000 rare stones.
Kumar Ravi, secretary of building construction department, said the new building will be ready by April, and the project is expected to be completed by this year. "Once the art and culture department will hand over the main building, the renovation work will begin. The renovation work will be done by a Delhi-based company. It will take 5-6 months for the total revamp of the old structure. The exhibit and audio-visual galleries work will go parallel with the renovation work," he said.
One audio-visual gallery will be based on 'Origin of Ganga' (evolution of civilisation on the banks river) while the other one will be named as 'Patli' (emergence of Patliputra). The exhibits will be made on the historical events occurred after 1764 in Bihar to modern era, on par with the Bihar Museum. Around Rs 135 crore will be spent on galleries and exhibits.