NEW DELHI: The National Museum’s vast antiquity collection will soon find a new home in Red Fort . Central government sources say three colonial-era barracks have been identified inside the Mughal citadel to display artefacts and antiquities from the museum’s vast collection that don’t find space in the galleries there.While renovation of one barrack is already under way, the other two barracks house two branches of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Barrack A1 houses the Institute of Archaeology, which is expected to relocate to a new building in Greater Noida; barrack A2 houses ASI’s science branch, which will move to a new location within the fort. Renovation work will begin once these two barracks are vacated.Four British barracks have already been converted to museums dedicated to Subhas Chandra Bose and INA, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Revolt of 1857 and art. “A fifth museum, Azadi Ke Deewane, will be opened to the public in the next few weeks,” said an ASI official.Officials said displaying portions of the National Museum’s collection in Red Fort will go a long way in bringing out many of the museum’s rare treasures to the public domain.Museum director-general Dr B R Mani told TOI: “We are preparing a list of items in the museum’s collection that can go on display at the Red Fort barracks. Various ideas are being explored on whether the displays will be divided by theme, period, significance, etc, or all items will be related to Mughal period or any other part of Delhi’s history. We are toying with the idea of a cultural gallery . The idea is to bring out as much of the museum’s collection for public display as possible. ASI and the museum will collaborate together on this project.”The museum currently has over two lakh exhibits in its collection, but only up to 9% of that is on display and the rest are exhibited in temporary exhibitions on a rotational basis.The National Museum desperately needs more space and will soon expand into the neighbouring building, which served as ASI headquarters earlier. Work on the expansion, however, is taking much more time than anticipated, forcing the ministry of culture to explore other venues.The National Museum has 29 galleries at present, and there are plans to have at least six more. “The ministry is keen to promote Red Fort as a hub of museums,” said a source.

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