New Delhi: The Delhi Metro Museum, touted as South Asia's ‘first modern Metro Museum', is set to get a dedicated complex at northeast Delhi's Shastri Park that would serve the twin purpose of “entertainment and education”.
DMRC has been alloted 12,000 square metre of land right next to the Shastri Park Metro station for this purpose which authorities said would be “easily accessible” due to its proximity to the station.
“Land identification and allotment have been done for an independent building at a large plot of land adjacent to the Shastri Park Metro Station, making it easily accessible, that would serve in educating as well as entertaining visitors,” said a DMRC spokesperson.
The present museum, operating out of Patel Chowk Metro Station, apart from being considered as the world's first Metro Museum located in a functional metro station, is modelled on London's Transport Museum.
DMRC authorities were planning to move the museum out of its current premises, which was inaugurated in 2009, to a separate building for a long time now as it was getting increasingly difficult to accommodate new installations due to lack of adequate space.
“We plan to set up an elaborate museum there which will cover all aspects of metro functioning,” a DMRC spokesperson said, adding that it will also have facilities for school and college students to visit in groups.
Officials said that new exhibits would be added to the new museum, to chart the metro's journey from its inception to its current rapidly growing stage, which could not be done in the operational one.
The museum, a brainchild of DMRC chief spokesperson Anuj Dayal, in its present capacity houses exhibits such as working models of trains, replicas of tunnel boring machines, souvenirs apart from several pictorial informational panels charting the history of the metro network.
As part of its efforts to promote history among the people, DMRC has also put up informative panels at the Mandi House Station and is on the process of putting up another at the upcoming ITO station.
