NEW DELHI: The Bihar Museum has missed the deadline yet again and is now slated to open, albeit only partially, on August 7.
The Rs 530-crore world-class facility was to be inaugurated on July 30.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had laid the foundation stone of the museum on July 9, 2013. It is considered his pet project, among other plans for the state.
The project was to originally open on the Bihar Diwas, March 22, this year.
With elections in the offing, the JD(U)-led government is apparently in a rush to wrap up prime projects before the model code of conduct kicks in.
While many are happy about development work being done in fast-paced manner, many others have also took to social media to criticise the move of opening projects without properly finishing them.
"Some of the work at the museum could not be completed by July 30, but now work is in full swing and it has been decided that the museum will open on August 7. But, only three of its portions would be opened, as work on the rest is still going on," said a senior official associated with the project.
The world-class museum, billed as one of the best modern museums in the country, is coming up in the nearly 13 acres area off Bailey Road here, for which six colonial-era bungalows (no 2 through no 7) were dismantled.
"The three sections that would be opened are -- children's section, main entrance area and orientation theatre. The shamianas are being put up in its campus for the inauguration day," the official told PTI.
"The museum would house rare statues and sculptors available at the (old) Patna Museum and those around the capital and would be inaugurated on Bihar Divas (March 22), 2015," Kumar had said, while laying its foundation stone.
One of the uniqueness of the project, perhaps in the whole country, is the use of CorTen Steel, which assumes stable rust-like appearance when exposed to the weather for several years.
It has also been used prominently in the design structure, the official said.
The facades have been complemented with terracotta and other local materials of Bihar, the building symbolically links the past and the future through its materiality.
The Department of Art, Culture and Youth of the state government has planned this iconic museum to focus on the contributions made by the ancient Magadha Empire and the entire region of Bihar to the evolution of history and civilisation in the Indian subcontinent and throughout Asia.
Well-known Japanese firm Maki and Associates was chosen to design the building, considered one of the most ambitious museum projects in post-colonial India.
Canada-based Lord Cultural Resources is the consultant for the project while Larsen & Toubro is constructing the museum in the city, site of the ancient capital of the Magadha Empire, Pataliputra.
The sequence of the exhibition will provide a chronological narrative of India's history through an alternating experience of diverse interior and exterior spaces.
The old Patna Museum, located not very far from this new Bihar Museum, was established in 1917.
It got its own building in 1928, designed in Indo-Saracenic style, and houses some of the rare artefacts and statues, among others heritage items.
On July 21, Kumar had inaugurated a nearly 3 km-long flyover on Bailey Road, state's longest flyover built at a cost of Rs 300 crore.
Some residents of Patna posted images of this project on Facebook, claiming it was not finished properly and opened just keeping the elections in mind.