Mumbai to have textiles heritage museum

Mumbai is likely to have its own textiles heritage museum soon. The Union Ministry of Textiles is planning to develop the museum in Mumbai and it is likely to fund the project for between Rs 30 crore and Rs 40 crore.

The ministry will allot a National Textile Corporation (NTC) mill for this purpose. The ministry has zeroed in on three of the NTC mills in Mumbai and one of them will be chosen for the purpose.

Talking to Business Standard, Shankarsinh Vaghela, the Union Minister for Textiles, said, "The ministry is planning to set up a textiles heritage museum in Mumbai to exhibit the rich history of textiles and Mumbai's role in it. The museum will be set up in one of the closed NTC mills in Mumbai. The ministry will also fund Rs 30 crore to Rs 40 crore for the purpose."

"The ministry has selected three closed NTC mills in Mumbai for this purpose. Out of these three mills we will choose one to develop this museum," he said however, he did not give the names of the mills chosen for the museum.

Talking about Gujarat and Mumbai's history of textiles, Vaghela said,"Gujarat has been considered the Manchester of India in the textiles sector, however, Maharashtra has also played a major role in our textiles sector. Mumbai was one of the major ports if one checks the history from where Indian made textiles used to be exported.

Mumbai has played as important role for Maharashtra in its textiles sector as Ahmedabad has played for Gujarat. Ahmedabad already has one textiles museum and one more is being planned by a private player. So Mumbai should also have one such museum," Vaghela added.

J N Singh, Textiles Commissioner, Government of India, also confirmed the plans of this proposed museum in Mumbai. Singh said that it will be a museum where the history of Mumbai's textiles industry will be put up on display for the new generations and researchers.

It is likely that the machinery of the old mills may be put on display along with pictures, informative and interactive displays might also feature in the proposed textiles heritage museum in Mumbai.

It may be noted here that the Union Ministry of Textiles is also planning to set up a a National Institute of Natural Fibres and a National Jute and Jute Geo-Textiles Museum in Kolkata.