Kannur lighthouse museum awaits Gadkari's date

KANNUR: The district is all set to house the fourth lighthouse museum in the country, which is expected to give a boost to knowledge tourism in the region. This will be the second lighthouse museum in the state, after Alappuzha.
Officials said they were waiting for the date of Union transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari though the work had been completed."Our plan was to inaugurate the museum in April, but the minister was not available. We are waiting for the next available date to inaugurate it," one of them said.
The museum, near the lighthouse at Payyambalam here, is expected to give a facelift to tourism in the region. It will have rare objects capturing the tradition and legacy of lighthouses in India on display. A team led by T C R Prasad, assistant engineer in the directorate, had set it up.
The exhibits at the museum will include a gigantic Boya lamp bought from Gujarat and many other lights used in lighthouses in the older days. Further, the lighthouse at Payyambalam is the ninth one built in the locality as the others were destroyed owing to various reasons. The museum will have the drawings of all those earlier lighthouses.
The optic used in the lighthouse in Lakshadweep during the 19th century, the double-wick lamp used earlier in Kannur lighthouse, the fog-bell that was used to alert shipmen and a deep-sea buoy will be among the other exhibits. As of now, similar museums are there in Alappuzha, Chennai and Mahabalipuram.
District tourism promotion council secretary Saji Varghese said a light and sound show had also been arranged at the fort and the initiative would boost tourism in the region.