Historical City Taxila

PICTURE GALLERY AT TAXILA MUSEUM

TAXILA, Oct 28: Despite a lapse of 13 years, a gallery constructed at the Taxila Museum in 1999 has still not been opened to public due to the alleged indifference and apathy of officials of the department of archaeology. The gallery at Taxila Museum had been constructed at a cost of Rs5.5 million during the fiscal year 1999-2000, but it is yet to be decorated and opened to public. Furthermore, no antiquities have been put on display. The archaeology department had accorded the tender for the construction of a new gallery at Taxila Museum to a firm, and 22 showcases were to be constructed to harbour over 1,000 antiquities which were discovered after the museum’s construction in 1928.Between 1947 and 2007, almost 9,000 antiquities belonging to the ancient Gandhara civilization and Buddhism were discovered by different excavating teams at various ancient sites in Taxila valley. Therefore, to expand the museum building and to attract more tourists, the department decided to construct a new gallery in 1999. The building was completed the same year, but local authorities refused to own the building quoting substandard construction work. Therefore, the department fortified the security money of the contractor as per law, and the latter approached the court to settle the issue. Finally in February 2012, the local court gave its decision in favour of the department, the then director general of Punjab department of archaeology, during a visit to Taxila Museum, ordered authorities concerned to decorate the 22 showcases of the gallery with antiquities. However, seven months passed but the gallery was not opened to public. Officials of the archaeology department Taxila spent another Rs170,000 to equip the new gallery with showcases, but there was no progress despite the lapse of another five months. When contacted, the deputy director of the department of archaeology, Mohammad Irshad Khan, attributed the delay in opening to certain technical reasons. He said the selection of antiquities to be put on display had been completed and the gallery would be open to public soon after the approval of officials of the department at Lahore.