New Delhi, Nov 11 The ambitious Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum project will be implemented in a phased manner by 2031, and the first gallery to be set up on the theme of ‘Adornment’ in the North Block is expected to open to the public in the later part of 2027, the government said on Wednesday.
A modular approach is being formulated to add more galleries. The content and collection analysis is being done, and around 1.8 million objects have been identified from the National Museum here and other museums under the Ministry of Culture, 52 ASI site museums and various other state museums, and private collections to be displayed in the upcoming museum, it said.
The Union Cabinet, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, approved the development of the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum through adaptive reuse of the North and South Block complex in Delhi, at an estimated total project cost of Rs 3,230 crore.
Billed to be the largest museum in the world, it will have eight thematic segments telling the story of India spanning over 5,000 years, officials had earlier said.
The ambitious museum project was announced by the prime minister on May 18, 2023. It is being led by the Ministry of Culture.
The museum will be developed through the adaptive reuse of the historic North and South Block complex, “preserving their architectural character and heritage significance while transforming them into a public cultural institution”, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) said.
The historic North Block and South Block, following the relocation of the government offices, provide a “unique opportunity for their adaptive reuse for a significant public cultural purpose”, the CCEA said.
The North Block earlier housed the Home Ministry, the Finance Ministry and other central government offices, while the South Block housed the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs, which have been moved to the newly-built Kartavya Bhawans near the India Gate complex.
The new capital of Delhi was designed and built from 1912 to 1931 by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, along with Sir Herbert Baker, and the two imposing buildings — North Block and South Block — along with the Rashtrapati Bhavan (earlier Viceroy’s House) form the centrepiece of the Raisina Hill complex.
These iconic buildings were constructed as part of the new capital of Delhi, envisioned by the British Raj after the imperial capital was shifted from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in 1911.
“The project seeks to preserve the architectural and heritage character of these iconic buildings while giving them a new institutional role,” the CCEA said in its statement.
The project will be implemented in a phased manner over the financial years 2026-27 to 2030-31, it said.
“The first inaugural gallery on the theme of ‘Adornment’ is expected to open to the public in the North Block in the later part of 2027,” the government said.
In an interview in May, Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had shared with PTI Videos the broader details on the status of the mega project, and said Modi had given the Culture Ministry the target of the year 2028 to complete and inaugurate its first phase.
Work has begun on restoring the North and South Blocks to their original design, following which the project to convert them into the ambitious Yuge Yugeen Bharat National Museum will start by a consortium selected via a global tender, he had then said.
In the last close to 100 years, a lot of “internal alterations” were done in these buildings, the minister noted.
The CCEA on Wednesday said that a modular approach is being formulated to add more galleries.
“Other galleries are being developed on themes such as ‘Architecture and Cityscapes’, ‘Mathematics and Astronomy’, ‘Languages and Scripts’, ‘Faith and Spirituality’ and ‘Bharat Connects – Trade and Ideas’, among others,” it said.
Implementation will be undertaken through coordinated project management, design and technical oversight, quality assurance and periodic monitoring, the government added.
Prime Minister Modi had unveiled a video walkthrough for the planned museum at the inauguration of the first International Museum Expo here on May 18, 2023. An agreement was signed in December 2024 between the National Museum and France Museums Development (FMD) on technical cooperation for the development of the upcoming museum.
In February, Modi had underlined that this project will transform the North Block and the South Block, “once a centre of power, into a centre of culture”.
Shekhawat, in February, in a written response to a query in Rajya Sabha, had informed Parliament, “For Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum (YYBM), objects will be drawn from six Ministry of Culture (MoC) museums, 52 Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) site museums, repatriated artefacts, and long-term loans from international institutions, state-level museums, and prominent private collections.”
Once fully completed, the museum is expected to attract an average of 30,000–35,000 visitors daily. Work is underway to ensure that the metro service reaches near it, and there is a bus terminus near it, the minister had told PTI during the interview.
It is envisaged as a landmark museum showcasing the continuity, diversity and richness of India’s rich civilisational legacy through an integrated narrative of its tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the government said.
(PTI News)
