Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose's residence on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, called Acharya Bhaban, will be turned into a heritage science museum with funds from the central government.
The proposal of a science heritage museum at the polymath's residence was first passed in 2011 by the Manmohan Singh government with Jawahar Sircar as the then culture secretary.
It was then put in the cold storage and revived in 2019 but got shelved for three years because of the pandemic.
The present government has passed the proposal now with a truncated budget of Rs 5 crore to be released in tranches.
At present, Acharya Bhaban is a house museum with Bose's personal items
in it. The museum is run by Sir JC Bose Trust which has received the funds for the proposed museum.
The project to be executed by the Calcutta chapter of Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (Intach) will involve extensive restoration of the 1902 house which has three floors, a roof, a garden, and a garage in which were parked two cars, including a Topi that is exhibited at BITM.
"We will start work as soon as we receive funds," said G.M. Kapur of Intach.
Architect Anindya Bose said: "There are two aspects to the project, the conservation and restoration of the build- ing and the museum design and curation. Certain rooms like the sitting room with its wall frescoes, paintings and murals, the bedroom, a sitting area with a 1900 W Leslie refrigerator will be maintained in situ with limited access. We will have modern galleries for the other rooms."
There are plans to demolish the outhouse which has the garage and a kitchen used by Acharya Jagadis Chandra Bose's wife, Lady Abala Bose, to accommodate fire fighting facilities, lift, staircase with ramp, cafeteria and other things that are mandatory for a modern museum.
A detailed curatorial plan for the museum was shared by Chelsea McGill, who is looking after the curation.
"This was where Acharya Bose lived, who discovered wireless technology, so it is only in fitness of things that the museum will be a wifi zone with audio guides. There will be QR codes to access further information on the exhibits," said McGill.
The rooms will showcase his early childhood, his relationship with his parents, his education at St Xavier's Col- lege, London and Cambridge (1874-84).
He contracted Kala Azar when he was studying medicine in London after which he shifted to study physics at Cambridge.
When he came back to Calcutta, he joined Presidency College but he was denied the salary paid to British staff. He rebelled against this and re- fused the meagre salary.
"He lived in penury then. For a while he rented a house in Halisahar. His wife Lady Abala Bose bought a boat to travel by the river. Bose took years to build the house. Eventually, he was paid the full salary," said McGill.
Another gallery will be devoted to the response that his work received in the West, the controversies and deputations to the UK, including a section on his invention of the radio and the controversy with Italian inventor and electrical en- gineer Guglielmo Marconi.
On the second floor, there will be the main gallery on king Bose as a scientist, a Renaissance man, a nationalist, an art lover and philosopher (1905-1937).
A dark room used by Bose, the photographer will be restored to show 1900 photography techniques.
Abala Bose's room will also be curated to show her life and her works, someone who ran Brahmo Girls School across the street, the first woman travel writer in Bengali.
Bose's own private laboratory on the third floor, the first such in Asia, will be preserved in situ and the roof will have an observatory apart from a sensory garden which will have plants that react to external stimuli, first discovered by Bose.