MADURAI: Porunai Archaeological Museum, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister MK Stalin at Reddiarpatti in Tirunelveli on Saturday night, will be open for visitors from Tuesday onwards.
The museum, set on 13 acres of land for Rs 67.25 crore, showcases artefacts from ancient Tamil civilisation sites, including Sivagalai, Adichanallur, Thulukkarpatti and Korkai. Apart from these, an intro gallery at the museum houses portraits of historically important places.
In addition to exhibition galleries, the museum complex includes an amphitheatre, access roads to the blocks, a water pool, a fountain with colourful lighting, and an open hall designed to enhance the visitor experience.
The museum will be open from 10 am to 7 pm. To make art and history more accessible, engaging and interactive, 5D and 7D virtual reality theatre has been designed and also helps let visitors feel and experience things like sailing on a boat to explore archaeological marvels on the Thamirabarani river banks, sources said.
Many visitors are eager to see how well the museum is established and features displays of antique objects.
To facilitate visitors, the District Administration has offered bus service with the aid of TNSTC from Tirunelveli Junction Periyar bus stand to the museum from Monday to Saturday.
Daily, eleven buses will ply and four more buses in addition on public holidays from the bus stand to the site museum through Vannarpettai, Palayamkottai bus stand and Tirunelveli new bus stand.
Hailing the new facility, C Santhalingam, a Madurai-based retired archaeologist and founder of Pandya Nadu Centre for Historical Research, said the Porunai museum would help bring archaeological history alive for students of the southern region and also create employment opportunities for history graduates. The existence of the museum would also help boost economic and tourism development in this region, he told DT Next on Monday.
As of now, Tamil Nadu has around forty museums, including those of the archaeology department and tourism department, Santhalingam said.