“We are hoping it (Old GMC complex) will be a permanent venue. It is not yet official but we have spoken to the ex-CM (Manohar Parrikar) and he had agreed to this suggestion,” she told a panel of heritage activists and conservationists during a seminar on Thursday.
The government had earlier decided to temporarily shift the museum to old Secretariat but subsequently chose the ancient building as the state museum at Patto is posing a threat to the artifacts. The government had charted out an extensive plan to renovate the structure on a war footing, over a year ago but it has failed to take off till date.
Conceding the relatively new state museum is in a dilapidated condition, Saldanha said it needs to be demolished and reconstructed. Architect Gerard D’Cunha contested the minister’s information stating the floor of the state museum is cracking and not its physical structure.
“There is no reinforcement of the floor. The renovation can be done room by room. The museum is not cracking up but it is the floor. The structure is strong,” D’Cunha said. Seconding him, Victor Hugo Gomes of Goa Chitra Museum said the existing location of the state museum is unsuitable since it is located on saline land.
The minister, agreeing to the views, insisted that the old GMC is the right venue. “I am very happy with the alternative space we have decided. It is the right venue as far as accessibility is concerned,” Saldanha said urging the museum authorities and experts to inspect the location for deciding all the modalities before shifting the artifacts.
The state museum comprising 15 galleries – sculpture, Christian art, Bannerji art gallery, religious expression, cultural anthropology, contemporary art, numismatic, Goa’s freedom struggle gallery, furniture gallery – as well as a few others was shifted to its premises at Patto on June 18, 1996; 19 years after it was established in 1977.
However, the building weakened with cracks visible on most of the walls and ceiling. Besides, damaged floor tiles have also become an eye-sore to visitors who number between 20,000 and 25,000 annually.
