Ambedkar museum work gets underway

Nagpur: Lucknow-based National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property has started to treat and preserve artefacts and antiques of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar that otherwise were deteriorating since last 56 years. The preservation is being done as part of the Ambedkar Museum proposed to come up at Shantivan situated at Chincholi on Katol Road near the city.Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) is set to begin construction work of the museum.
NRLC has planned to treat and preserve all artefacts and antiques displayed at Shantivan at its laboratory set up at Central Museum, Civil Lines. NRCL will be doing these works in a phased manner for three years.
NRLC, known across the country for preservations of articles, has been engaged in major projects like preservation at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad and JJ School of Arts, Mumbai. The team had arrived here on Wednesday and met NIT chairman Shyam Wardhane, followed by a visit to Shantivan. Wardhane said, “There were some issues between Central Museum and NRLC but they were sorted and we have decided to go ahead. We have reached the demonstration stage of setting up the museum. NIT will ensure completion of the project within three years,” he said.
Wardhane added, “Earlier there was reservation of quarry at the project’s proposed site. NIT has completed the process and reservation is deleted.”
NRLC director BV Kharbade said, “Two years back we had visited Shantivan to check out the status of the artefacts kept there. Even then those materials were already in need of urgent attention and now it must have deteriorated further.”
“Our team will bring artefacts and antiques in a phased manner from Shantivan to our laboratory. The process of chemical treatment which we will be performed for preservation will take three years. Later, we will train the museum authority about the post-care treatment that would ensure preservation of artefacts and antiques. If these post-protocols are performed well then there is no possibility the artefacts would ever deteriorate,” he said.
NRLC project coordinator Leena Ziple said, “Majority of the material present there is textiles which are mostly Ambedkar’s personal cloths, huge bunch of papers written by him and a few personal belongings. All these are currently kept at Shantivan at an unsuitable room temperature. Weather also affects them a lot. We are now going to immediately shift them to our laboratory at the Central Museum.”
NIT divisional officer PR Patil said that a private contractor will be appointed to construct the museum’s structure. “Civil works worth Rs30 crore will be executed in a period of three years. Tendering process has been completed though the work order is yet to be given,” he said.
(Reporting by Shakti Singh)