India's biggest rail museum to come up at Lonavala

Lonavala (Maharashtra), Sep 27 (PTI) A 17-acre plot of
land, now housing some residential homes and a few abandoned
buildings, will soon make way for the biggest rail museum in
the country which will display the historical significance and
evolution of over 150-year-old Railways.

The Indian Railways is planning to build its largest
Regional Rail Museum in the cool climes of the Lonavala hill
station, about 120 km from Mumbai, and expects it to be ready
in the next two years, a senior official said.
"A budgetary allocation of Rs 11.60 crore has been made
for the work in this year's Rail Budget. Besides being the
first-of-its kind in the Western region, the rail museum will
be among the largest in the world," Rajesh Agrawal, Executive
Director (Heritage), Ministry of Railways, said.
The proposed museum will be bigger than Delhi-based
National Rail Museum which is spread over 13 acres, he said.
"The museum will be created over a landscaped area and
we expect a large number of people to visit it," Agrawal
added.
The museum's location was finalised at Lonavala since a
large plot of land owned by Central Railways was available
there and due to its proximity to Mumbai and Pune. The hill
station is a popular picnic spot for people from both the
cities.
"We did not want to obtain a smaller plot of land in one
of the cities since it would mean compromising on the size of
the museum," a Railways official said.
Visitors to the museum can look forward to seeing railway
artifacts from the 19th century, working models of trains,
photographs, displays highlighting the change in technology
used, press clippings, audio-visual exhibits and other
historical material.