Bihar leader to build museum at official home

Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is creating a mini museum at his official residence, which will showcase rare and unique gifts he received during his travels to other countries.

Officials said the gifts will be put on display at a 1,700-square-foot mini museum to come up at Kumar’s 1, Anne Marg official residence in Patna soon.

According to a report, a city-based design company has been asked to give shape to the gallery, which will display some 2,000 collections of gifts, mementoes and souvenirs. The company that has been given the contract, Kosha Fantasies, has been involved with several major events of the Bihar government in the recent past, such as Bihar Day, Education Day and Youth Festival, and its work has been well-received.

During his eight-year tenure as chief minister, Kumar has travelled to countries such as China, Pakistan, Mauritius and Bhutan. The gifts he has received on these visits include paintings, a sword with a silver handle, and replicas of the historical Nalanda University.

“We have been asked to finish the work within 40 days and we hope to complete the project by the end of June,” Kosha Fantasies director Umesh Kumar Sharma said on Monday. The display gallery will come up atop an old single-storey building located just behind the chief minister’s official residence, he said.

Sharma said he would very soon be meeting with senior officials to decide a name for the gallery. It is planned that the museum will initially open to a VIP audience before it is opened to general visitors.

Kumar’s idea to keep his gifts in a museum appears to have been borrowed from former president Pratibha Patil who mooted a museum at Amravati in Maharashtra to display the gifts she received from heads of states and others during her state visits abroad. Patil’s proposal had drawn sharp criticism from various quarters at the time.