Agra museum's name change may delay project further

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath

With the name of Agra's 'Mughal Museum' being changed to 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum', the project - already behind schedule due to lack of funds and mounting costs - is likely to be delayed further, The Indian Express has reported.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had, on September 14, announced that the under-construction Mughal Museum in Agra will be named after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

"The museum under construction in Agra will be known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum. The symbols of slavery mentality have no place in new Uttar Pradesh. Our hero is Shivaji Maharaj. Jai Hind Jai Bharat," the UP Chief Minister said in a tweet in Hindi.

According to the report, the museum, which is located less than 1.5 kilometres from east gate of the iconic Taj Mahal, was to cost Rs 141 crore. It was launched by former CM Akhilesh Yadav in 2016 and was to be completed within two years.

At this point, the project is 70 percent done, with Rs 90 crore so far sanctioned. According to the report, one of the reasons for the delay is that the concrete structures have to be carted from Noida, which is around 200 kms away.

Now, with the change in name, officials have estimated a delay of at least one more year, according to the newspaper. This is because the Tourism Department, which is the nodal department for the project, might engage with historians from the Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Agra to find out more about the links between Shivaji Maharaj, a Maratha warrior king from Maharashtra and Agra.

"There is certainly a link between Shivaji and Agra. He was kept in captivity at Agra Fort during the era of Aurangzeb and bravely escaped," Amit Srivastava, Deputy Director, Tourism, Agra said.

"After Shivaji lost all his forts, he was called here by Aurangzeb. Shivaji got angry when he was not treated well. He was later held captive in the Ram Singh ki kothi. However, so far neither the ASI nor any historian is 100 percent sure where this Ram Singh’s kothi is," B D Shukla, Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Culture at the university told the newspaper while recalling Shivaji Maharaj's time at Agra in 1666.