Delhi soon to have world’s largest museum: PM

The upcoming Yuge Yugeen Bharat National Museum will have eight segments focusing on various themes that will tell the story of India spanning over 5,000 years. The museum is billed to be the largest in the world.

It will be housed in the North and South blocks in the heart of Delhi and will cover 1.17 lakh sqm of land with 950 room, officials said. The museum will have three storeys and a basement.

A virtual walkthrough of the museum was launched on International Museum Day on May 18 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at International Museum Expo held in Pragati Maidan.

On July 26, Modi unveiled Bharat Mandapam, an International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) complex, which has been developed at a cost of about Rs 2,700 crore with a campus area of approximately 123 acres. During his address at the inauguration, Modi also announced Yuge Yugeen Bharat National Museum.

A senior official told news agency PTI that the segments broadly include ancient Indian knowledge, ancient to medieval, medieval, modern India, the colonial rule, the freedom struggle and the 100 years from 1947 onwards, including the vision ahead. He dubbed it as “forward-looking museum”.

The virtual walkthrough of the museum provides a digital experience into how the galleries and gardens in it will appear once the museum is completed.

Ancient artefacts and other rich collections of the National Museum, located on Janpath here, are planned to be shifted to the buildings of the North and South Blocks as part of the project, a senior official had said earlier.

The South Block houses the External Affairs Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office, while the North Block has the ministries of finance and home.

Union Minister of State for Culture Meenakashi Lekhi has said that the current National Museum building will become part of the Kartavya Path and the annexes of the Kartavya Path.

The Kartavya Path, previously called Rajpath, is a ceremonial axis that runs from India Gate to Raisina Hill.