Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, February 8 The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up a laboratory for the conservation of the region's cultural heritage, officials said.
Marathwada in Maharashtra is home to thousands of historical artifacts, paintings, and ancient manuscripts, but the lack of scientific conservation facilities in the region has long threatened their survival.
Recognizing this gap, the CSMC and INTACH have partnered to provide a professional solution for the restoration and preservation of the region's cultural heritage, a release said.
While INTACH operates five conservation labs across India, the new facility to come up on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum campus here will mark its first such establishment in Maharashtra, it said.
The agreement was finalized following a high-level meeting last week, where the blueprint, operational procedures, and future phases of the lab were discussed. Municipal Commissioner and Administrator G Sreekanth and INTACH's local chapter convener Maya Vaidya signed the MoU on Saturday, the release said.
Sreekanth said the lab will serve not just the city but also the region.
"We are the only municipal corporation in the state that manages a historical museum. This laboratory will serve as a hub for heritage conservation not just for the city, but for the entire Marathwada region," he said.
The ability to undertake scientific conservation of artifacts, sculptures, and documents at a local level will be a game-changer. Under the guidance of INTACH experts, the public will also be able to avail these services to preserve their private collections and historical documents, Vaidya said.
INTACH, a premier heritage conservation body, was established in 1984.