Nehru Children’s Museum will reopen this weekend and visitors will have to wear masks and carry sanitisers, the museum authorities said on Monday.

Visitors to the 48-year-old museum will be allowed from 11am to 6pm every day except on Mondays and Tuesdays from November 15.

The museum has been closed since the third week of March. The museum will be cleaned and sanitised before it is reopened.

“Visitors will be allowed after a thermal screening. There will be foot pedal sanitisers at the entry,” Sudip Srimal, the museum director, said. “Visitors should wear masks and carry sanitisers for their own use.”

Srimal said the authorities did not expect more than 40 to 50 people a day.

“The crowd will be spread across three floors… in case there are more people we have provision to accommodate them on the ground floor. We will follow distancing rules according to government guidelines,” Srimal said.

The museum has clay models that tell the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata and costume dolls from more than 96 countries. Recently, members of the staff paid tribute to Jugal Srimal, the founder- director of the museum, on the occasion of his birth centenary.

The culture ministry has decided to reopen museums and art galleries in view of the festive season and has issued a detailed standard operating procedure.

“Usually, the museum has maximum visitors between November and January and again in May. But this year we do not know how things will turn out,” Srimal said.

Indrani Sengupta, the secretary of the museum, said it would not be difficult to monitor the crowd because there wouldn’t be school trips.

“It is when schools organise field trips that we get 300 to 400 children at one point of time. Since schools are closed, there is no possibility of that,” Sengupta said.

She said tickets would be issued at the counter but visitors could avoid touching them. “To avoid contact, visitors need not take the tickets themselves. It will be directly given at the entry from the counter.”

The closure of the museum for more than seven months has impacted its funds. “We have appealed to the culture ministry for funds,” Srimal said.