The Indian Museum executed a Rs 100-crore “modernisation” programme to celebrate its bicentennial year in 2014 without any conservation plan or detailed project report and proper planning, says a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the year ended March 2018.

Major work on providing a modern storage system, fire fighting, fire detection and prevention and ventilation and air conditioning, standard provisions for museums all over the world, was not taken up at all though money was sanctioned, the report says.

According to the report, proper conservation processes were also not followed during renovation, resulting in damage to priceless artefacts like the Lion Capital, more than 2,000 years old, at the entrance to the museum. The Gandhar Stupa, too, was damaged by the executing agency, the National Building Construction Company (NBCC) Limited, a public sector undertaking, says the CAG.

A picture clicked around March last year shows lime plaster peeling off walls. A Rs 100-crore repair project had been carried out at the museum just four years before Telegraph picture

The modernisation work was funded by the museum, which sanctioned Rs 66 lakh for repair of the external façade of the Anthropological Society of India building and the office Union ministry of culture, both of which are on the museum premises.

The audit of the modernisation project was taken up in April 2018. When records relating to the modernisation project were requisitioned by the CAG team, the museum submitted a copy of the complaint filed by its security officer on July 24, 2018, with the New Market police station reporting loss of the documents.

When the present Indian Museum director Arijit Dutta Choudhury was asked about this, he told Metro: “Yes this happens on and off at the museum. Files disappear and reappear again.”

This newspaper had in March 2019 reported how chunks were coming off the walls, corners were breaking off, water was dripping from the roof and lime plaster was coming off just four years after work was completed.

Work on the lift and gravity fall system is yet to be awarded, the report says. When asked about this, the director said: “Work is presently on to replace the lifts and an annual maintenance contract has been drawn up with the CPWD for a further sum of money that will be allocated from the general maintenance fund given annually to the museum by the ministry.”

For modernisation of the museum, Rs 99.76 crore was estimated. Work was executed and completed at a cost of Rs 95.87 crore. Major part of the work including restoration and modernisation of reserve store, installation of fire fighting, fire detection and prevention system, and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, estimated at Rs 25.73 crore, was not awarded at all.

The audit team noted that the storage and upkeep of reserve artefacts was completely ignored. The reserve accounts for almost 94 per cent of the museum’s collection and consists of inorganic objects susceptible to heat and humidity. They are now under excessive temperature and humidity variance, crumbling walls and loose hanging electrical wires.

On the lapse in the modernisation programme, the director said: “For storage, we need an entire new building. Right now most of the objects are stored at various places, some othe top floor, some sections have their own storage. We need to have one centralised storage with modern facilities and we are working on this proposal.”