Janpath's National Museum will stay open, Shekhawat says, as the new Yuge Yugeen museum plan takes shape

Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said on Friday that the National Museum on Janpath will continue as it is, giving the first clear word on the future of the old building since the Union government cleared a new, much larger museum in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi.

Speaking at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Shekhawat separated the two institutions. “National Museum is a museum of history. It will continue as it is. It is period to period,” he said. The new Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum, to be set up in the North and South Block complex, is meant to be a museum of civilisation, he said. Earlier plans had pointed to the new museum replacing the Janpath one.

What was approved

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the project on November 11 at an estimated ₹3,230 crore. The work will be carried out in phases from 2026-27 to 2030-31. The government has said the historic buildings will be reused while keeping their architectural character, with about 1,78,509 square metres of built-up area. We reported the Cabinet’s decisions that day in our report on the fertiliser subsidy and museum approvals.

On Friday the ministry added a date. The first gallery, on the theme of adornment, is expected to open in North Block in the second half of 2027. It will carry about 1,500 antiquities, and the displays will be rotated with objects from storage.

How the museum will be arranged

Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal said the galleries will run in chronological order, not by dynasty, “right from the advent of civilisation on this land to the modern civilisation.” Architecture will be shown by regional style, grouped as south, centre, north and the Himalayas.

The collection will come from several sources: the National Museum, other Culture Ministry museums, Archaeological Survey of India site museums, state museums and private collections. The ministry says about 1.8 million antiquities have been identified and digitised across central, ASI and state museums, which is the pool the curators will draw on.

Shekhawat defended the small share of objects on view at any time. “Normally, in the world of a museum, there are no more than 10 per cent exhibits. 90 per cent are stored,” he said. He compared the plan with a museum in Abu Dhabi which, he said, displays 368 objects and draws one million visitors a year. The National Museum on Janpath, which opened in its present building in 1960, also shows about 10% of its collection.

How the plan changed

Prime Minister Modi announced the museum in May 2023 at the International Museum Expo. In December 2024 the National Museum signed an agreement with France Museums Développement for a feasibility study, interpretive planning and building programming.

The question of the Janpath building has shifted over that time. In April 2024 the Ministry of Culture decided that the National Museum’s collection of more than two lakh artefacts would move directly to the new complex rather than into temporary storage. In July 2024 the government told Parliament that no decision had been taken on the existing National Museum building. Friday’s statement settles that point for now, though the ministry has not said how the Janpath collection and the new galleries will share objects.

The North and South Blocks were designed by Herbert Baker and completed in 1931. Government offices moved out in February 2026 to Seva Teerth and the Kartavya Bhavans under the Central Vista redevelopment, which left the two buildings free for the museum.

Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum so far

1. May 18, 2023Modi announces the museum at the International Museum Expo
2. December 2024National Museum signs a feasibility-study agreement with France Museums Développement
3. February 2026Government offices move out of North and South Block
4. November 11, 2026Cabinet committee approves ₹3,230 crore project
5. November 13, 2026Shekhawat says the Janpath National Museum will continue
6. Second half of 2027First gallery, on adornment, due in North Block

Reactions and what is not yet answered

No opposition party or heritage body response to Shekhawat’s remarks had been published when this report was written. The Cabinet’s decision itself had come with the government’s own description of the project, which it says will have the largest display area of any museum in the world.

Several practical questions remain open. The ministry has not said how many galleries will open in each phase, how much of the ₹3,230 crore is meant for the first gallery, or how visitors will be ticketed. It has also not said whether the National Museum’s own collection will be lent to the new galleries while Janpath keeps its displays.

Why it matters

For visitors, the decision means the Janpath museum, which shows about 10% of its collection, is not to be closed to make way for the new project. For the public purse, the museum is a ₹3,230 crore commitment spread over five financial years, with the first public gallery arriving only in 2027.

What happens next

The first gallery in North Block is the next milestone, in the second half of 2027. Until then the work will be in the adaptation of the two buildings and the selection of the roughly 1,500 antiquities for the opening display.