India has
partnered with Portugal to
set up a national
maritime heritage museum at Lothal in Gujarat. The Indian Navy will
be the stakeholder in
the project and the Portuguese
Navywill assist as they have experience in it by administering
the maritime museum in Lisbon,
Portugal. India is to follow a similar model of the
maritime museum.
Implementation
of the project:
In March 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid
the foundation
stone for the project and the Government of India has
allocated a grant for building the maritime museum.
The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Shipping through
its Sagarmala
programme. The Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) along with the State government and
other stakeholders is also involved in setting up the museum.
Partnership
and plans:
The initial discussion about the partnership was
held during the visit of Portuguese
Defence Minister João Gomes Cravinho to India in April 2019.
A Defence Ministry-led delegation will visit Portugal to study the existing museum.
Maritime
museum:
A maritime museum is a museum that specializes
in display the objects relating to ships
and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of
maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navies and the military use
of the sea.
