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Museums in West Bengal

Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Calcutta

India's first public science museum is the Biria Industrial and Technological Museum, also a constituent unit of the National Council of Science Museums, under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Initiated by Dr BC Roy who foresaw the role of such an institution in a developing country, space was provided by the pioneer industrialist G D Biria who donated his rambling residence and the museum opened to public in 1959.

Today the museum displays scientific models, hands-on interactive exhibits on scientific phenomena and models of various industries. On the ground floor, the Atom Gallery explains what atoms are, what they are made of, their various properties and their use to mankind. The Motive Power Gallery systematically presents the development of power from the earliest times onwards while the Transport Gallery traces the evolution of the transport system, culminating with man's momentous footsteps on the moon.

The galleries on the first floor contain exhibits relating to the principles of mechanics, sound, optics and modern electronics. There is a display of the mining of ore to the finished copper and steel. The Petroleum Gallery portrays aspects like the origin of oil, surveying, drilling, purification and the uses of petroleum.

On the second floor is the How Things Work Gallery which aims at inculcating a spirit of enquiry by exhibiting machines and mechanisms encountered in daily life. There are galleries on electricity, communications, television and electronics. The mock-up Coal Mine shows the principles of both bord and pillar and longwall systems and generally acquaints visitors with an underground mining situation. The museum also has a small 'animalorium' with live snakes, reptiles, rabbits, an aviary and aquariums.

Birla Industrial and Technological Museum
19A Gurusaday Road
Calcutta 700 019

Timing: 10.00 am to 5.30 pm.
Closed on Mondays and certain holidays