Institute seeks Rs 3 cr more for archaeology museum

The Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute needs more funds from the state government to complete the ongoing work on construction of a separate building for archaeology museum. Set to receive the final installment of Rs 47 lakh as part of the total sum of Rs 3.56 crore assured by the Department of Higher and Technical Education recently, the college has now sent a fresh proposal to the government for release of around Rs 3 crore more.

"A majority of the exterior work and some internal work at the museum building are about to complete in the next few days. We are going to fall short of funds to develop interiors of the museum as per our expectation. We have requested the government to ensure timely release of additional funds to ensure the work gets accomplished smoothly," College Director V P Bhatta told Newsline.

At the initiation of the Government of Maharashtra, a special grant of Rs.3.56 crore was sanctioned to the college for construction of a separate building for archaeology museum, which is coming up on a plot measuring around 1,700 square metres on the college campus.

Hailed as the third oldest educational institution in the country, the college has large numbers of artifacts right from Stone Age to the Medieval period in its possession, throwing light on the archaeology and history of the peninsular India. Most of these artifacts are currently placed in around 10 different galleries at the museum in the college's archaeology department building.

Museum curator Dr B S Gajul said the upcoming separate building would have more than eight spacious galleries to display different artifacts as per chronological order. Besides, there will be a laboratory, a discovery room, a research cell and a multi-media cell among other facilities.

"Besides a large number of rare artifacts, we also have ancient maps and contours among other treasure troves in our possession. A state-of-the-art facility is required to highlight all these items to the public. Therefore, we are carrying out meticulous planning on how to develop the interiors of the new museum," he said, adding that more funds would be needed to raise a world-class museum to attract tourists from India as well as abroad.

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