Kolkata: The museums in the city under the Ministry of Culture is opening up after nearly eight months on November 10, with strict compliance with all COVID-19 protocols. Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial Hall, Science City and Birla Industrial & Technological Museum (BITM) are all reopening on the same day that coincides with World Science Day and International Science Center & Science Museum Day.
The museums in the city have been closed since March 15 and are opening up in line with the Ministry of Culture's mandate to reopen all museums, art galleries and exhibitions.
The standard SOPs that will be followed includes online ticketing facility, compulsory temperature-screening of all visitors upon entry, mandatory use of face covers or masks, foot operated hand-sanitiser dispensing facility, provision for disposable gloves, sanitisation of all Museum facilities on regular basis, social-distancing compliant floor and seat markings, touch-free exhibit operation in galleries.
"There will be periodical public announcements for maintaining precautionary measures," said a senior official of BITM which will also install a 20-feet Giant Magic Tap, at its lawn on the reopening day.
Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH) will not allow more than 200 visitors at a time inside the Museum.
The entry in the VMH garden will also be restricted to 500 at a time and the do's and don't's will be circulated at the time of entry. Out of 38 lakh annual visitors at the VMH, 18 lakhs avail of the tickets for the garden alone. "We are also reducing the timing by two hours so that proper sanitization can be carried out before and after the visiting hours," said Jayanta Sengupta, Curator and Secretary of VHM. The timing of VMH will be from 11 am to 5 pm to begin with instead of the usual timing of 10 am to 6 pm.