BHUBANESWAR: President Ram Nath Kovind would visit Odisha in March to inaugurate the museum-cum-learning Centre at Anand Bhawan , ancestral house of former chief minister Biju Patnaik in Cuttack.It was informed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik after meeting teh President at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. “I had just been to invite the President. He has agreed to inaugurate the Anand Bhawan in Cuttack either on March 17th or 18th. It will be a museum-cum-learning centre in memory of Biju Babu,” Naveen told reporters at his residence in the national capital.Biju’s sons—chief minister Naveen and industrialist Prem had donated the property to the district administration in January, 2015 to convert it into a museum dedicated to the late CM of the state.According to sources, Biju Patnaik’s rare photographs, furniture, clothes and household items, which were lying in Anand Bhawan, will be displayed in the museum. A number of documents about Biju’s adventurous life will also be preserved in the proposed museum.“Renovation of the building has already been completed with an investment of around Rs 1.10 crore. To make the museum more attractive, the district administration has also developed a library and a water fountain outside it,” said an official.Sources have it that Anand Bhawan was constructed by Biju’s father Laxminarayan Patnaik in 1900s where Biju was born in this house on March 5, 1916. He was very fond of his ancestral house and visited it regularly, even though he had shifted to Bhubaneswar. Naveen was also born in the house on October 16, 1946.The chief minister, who arrived in the national capital on Saturday, is scheduled to return here on Sunday.

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