Tracing tracks

Indian railways' museums are set to get even more interesting, in partnership with America's famed Smithsonian

Would you believe it? The National Rail Museum (NRM) is the most popular museum in Delhi "" with 3,00,000 annual visitors. And the museum is set to become even better, thanks to a partnership with the famous Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington DC.

India has three rail museums at the moment, in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, and a fourth is coming up in Pune. How will the partnership help? "The American partnership will develop an institutional identity for NRM and bring about an attitudinal change," says Rajesh Agrawal, executive director, heritage, ministry of railways.

This partnership will also include exchange exhibitions, educational resource material, artefact exchange and other events. There will be common collaborative programmes every 2-3 years.

Agrawal adds that the ministry has also identified some rail museums in the US in Baltimore, Strasburg (Pennsylvania) and Scranton (Philadelphia) among others, to partner with.

The ministry has also asked for additional funds for improvements on the ground, for the NRM in Delhi. This means better artefact protection, archiving, better documentation, indoor gallery redesign, landscaping and the like.

"The fact that we get 60 per cent repeat visitors proves that we get quality visitors. We will create an even better experience for this visitor," exclaims Agrawal.

The Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Culture, Environment & Forests, and maybe even tour operators will have to pitch in after a common platform is created.

To deliver an unforgettable experience, a dialogue has been initated with Delhi Tourism to create a theme-based sound and light show and run interesting programmes at the amphitheatre and the auditorium at the museum.

There is also a plan for an interpretation centre at the rail museum as well as a tour of the Delhi ring railway, complete with guides and interpretation.

The ministry of education can work on creating educational guides, and other resource guides for the NRM. "There is also an opportunity for the private sector to pitch in "" from sectors like steel, metal, oil, energy, environment, transport to even communications," he says.

The idea is to build a brand and rediscover the history of India through the museum, showing the role played by the railways in India's development.

The target is to get visitor numbers up to at least 3 million, but Agrawal explains that it all depends on the linkages established with other stakeholders, especially travel industry players. Surprises from the railways never seem to cease.