Powerless and without backup, Museum shut for second day

KOLKATA: A power outage that occurred due to a snag on Tuesday afternoon forced Indian Museum to stay shut on Wednesday. Hundreds of tourists and visitors were disappointed as they were turned away from the gates. Indian Museum usually gets around 2,000 visitors daily.
California-based Sanghamitra Niyogi, who had reached the edifice on Chowringhee only to be told about the unscheduled closure, was terribly upset.
"I am returning to the city after a long time and wanted to see Indian Museum whose renovation I have been reading about for quite a while. How can a public facility like this be shut down without notice? If they had an exigency, they should have notified it in newspapers and over radio and TV," she said.
Some museum officials felt the facility could have been partially open had the authorities been slightly flexible. Of the 13 galleries that are usually open to visitors, five did not have power supply through Wednesday. Though there was supply at eight galleries, the museum authorities decided to keep the facility shut instead of allowing visitors to view the exhibits in sections that had power.
The museum's education officer, Sayan Bhattacharyya, who is managing the museum while director Jayanta Sengupta is visiting Delhi, said the museum had been kept shut on the director's instruction as he did not wish to compromise on the safety and security of visitors as well as exhibits as many of the 293 CCTV cameras did not function.
Officials of National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), the agency engaged to repair the damaged power lines, said a section of the seven panels that supplied power to the galleries had been affected. "The problem was restricted to some galleries, not the entire museum complex," the official said.
Though supply from CESC was uninterrupted, the closure laid bare the museum's vulnerability in the absence of power backup.
The Science City, a sprawling science museum that has a requirement of 1,100 KV, can stay open even when there is a powercut as it has backup for 600 KV power. "All we do is switch off the AC to control the demand. The major facilities operate on the backup," said Science City director Avijit Dutta Chowdhury.mer IM Board of Trustee (BoT) member Sachndranath Bhattacharya felt the museum should have had a power back-up in place, particularly after spending Rs 90 crore for its bicentennary upgrade.
Vox-pop:
Kaisar, Uttara, Dhaka: I came yesterday but due to sudden closure, I could not see it. Today, I was determined to see the museum today. Feeling bad. I have heard about the museum since my childhood. I will leave on Friday and won't get the chance to see it during this trip.
Amlan Das, California: How can museum shut it down without prior notice. They should have run a newspaper publicity. There can be technical issues. But no one is there to tell me what exactly the issue is. Power outage is a broad term. We are quite used to proper radio and TV announcement about museum closure.
Sulagna Mitra Chatterjee, Behala: I am feeling bad. I came early to roam around the museum and leave early for home. I heard majority of the galleries had no issues with power supply. I would not mind visiting the museum partially.
Kamal Cruseth, IIT-Kgp professor and his daughter Kamaksha: We came here on official trip. Today I kept apart for museum trip. I am of course disappointed. There should have been better information decimation system.
Problem and Solution: Indian Museum has seven panel distributors of electricity. One portion of the panel got damaged. Around 3.45 pm, the power could be restored for a brief period. At around 4.45 pm, it was restored. NBCC which restored the power was asked to submit a technical report on the outage. Indian Museum security officer submits a physical verification report on affected galleries. On the basis of the report, the museum will be thrown open to public.
History:
Established on 2nd February, 1814 at the cradle of the Asiatic Society, the earliest museum in the Asia Pacific region underwent multi-linear phases of fruitful existence. Earlier known as Asiatic Museum and subsequently as Imperial Museum, grew into the largest institution of its kind of the country as an epitome of human civilization. The architect being W. L. Granville and the present Victorian edifice was completed in 1875.
With countless objects of art and nature and of infinite variety showcased in a number of galleries spreading over almost eight thousand square meter area of its six sections viz. Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Zoology, Geology and Botany with about one million holdings, Indian Museum with its multi-disciplinary activities, has been included as an important national institution in the constitution of India.
The Archaeology Section includes collections dating back from 5th BC to 17th AD. Indian coins of early, mediaeval and modern times are also displayed. Art Section is divided into Paintings, Textiles and Decorative Arts of India. The Anthropology Section consists of human evolution and cultural anthropology galleries. The scientific sections administered by Zoological, Geological and Botanical Surveys of India, have a good number of galleries displaying fish, reptile, bird, mammals; fossils, rock and mineral; and medicinal plants, vegetable fibers, dyes and tans, gums and resins, timber, oil and oil seeds collections.