After a gap of six years, the state government and the district administration is considering a plan to house the Vadodara City Museum in the Gaekwad Railway Salon. But the city’s museum experts have voiced their concern over the concept due to the salon’s proximity to the Vadodara railway station.

The Heritage Trust — a city-based NGO working on the restoration of heritage sites — was supposed to carry out work on the salon, an old carriage room, back in 2003.

Although prominent architect Karan Grover, who heads Heritage Trust, was unavailable for comments, Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) Tourist Officer Rajendra M Shah said the restoration work will begin soon.

“As part of the VMC, we will provide services for the restoration of the Gaekwad Railway Salon. The project is on a Private Public Partnership (PPP) model, while the district administration will decide on the details of the project,” said Shah.

District Collector Vijay Nehra said though there are plans to set up of a museum for the city, it would be premature to say if the Gaekwad Railway Salon would be turned into a museum.

“The idea of the museum has been floating around, but we are yet to come up with something concrete at this point. The Gaekwad Railway Salon is one of the sites under consideration,” he said.

Back in 2003, a group of museum experts and heritage enthusiasts from the city, ‘Friends of Museum’ had voiced their concern over the use of the Gaekwad Railway Salon as a museum.

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