City set to get a new museum

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad will give visitors another reason to flock to its gates__a brand new museum.
Authorities of Salar Jung Museum have begun work on a proposed 'Town Hall' that will house the 400-year-old history of Hyderabad.
"There will be mannequins, photographs, models, replicas, of important people in its history, structures and buildings and material that will tell the story of Hyderabad," museum director A Nagendar Reddy told TOI.
The museum authorities will play facilitator for setting up the unique museum that will be housed in the Quli Qutb Shah Urban Development Authority (QQSUDA) building, a heritage structure at Darulshifa in the Old City.
There are several important museums in Hyderabad but there is nothing that exclusively projects the history of the city.
While the Salar Jung Museum is a collection of the artefacts and pieces of arts and objects by Salar Jung, the State Museum at Public Gardens has a variety of exhibits. The Nizam's Museum displays things that related to the Nizam and some miniatures or replicas of some buildings.
In the proposed 'Town hall', there would be information and pictures about the Kakatiya rulers who ruled from Golconda and the subsequent rulers of the Qutb Shahi dynasty. Similarly, there would be complete information with pictures and relevant material about the Asaf Jahs __ the Nizams who ruled Hyderabad.
The depiction of the history of the city will not be confined to its rulers and the families that reigned but also of poets, musicians and those whose contributed in making the city what it is today.
The material, pieces of arts and artefacts that are available with various government organisations will also be collected and housed in the museum.
Salar Jung Museum authorities said the QQSUDA office will have to first be moved out of its present premises for the new museum to come up. It may be mentioned here that a new premises of QQSUDA has already been planned.
While it may take a while for the new museum to be set up, SJ museum authorities have already set in motion an attempt to get a slice of `oral history' of Hyderabad. This will be as part of its plan to prepare `Archival oral history' of Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung-III, founder of the museum.
Experts will refer to People who were directly associated with the museum and who would have first-hand knowledge about it from the time it was set up. Apart from royal families, artists, artisans and craftsmen will also be interviewed to get a complete picture.