BMC to start work on Mumbai’s first textile museum in 15 days

The museum will have an amphitheatre with decks facing a pond, a garden landscape and a play area for children

Within the next 15 days, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will start work on the city’s first textile museum at India United Mills compound, Kalachowki. The civic body’s highest statutory standing committee on Saturday passed a proposal to begin work on phase one of the Rs300-crore project.

The museum, planned in a 10-acre heritage precinct of Mumbai’s textile mills, will have an open area of about 7,000 sqm, with an amphitheatre with decks facing a pond, a garden landscape and a play area for children. Officials of the heritage department said a cafeteria will also be built for visitors. “The phase 1 includes Mumbai’s only musical fountain in the 2,300-sqm pond. However, we will get a special contractor with an artistic skill. Installation of the musical fountain, which will be done by next year, will cost Rs25 crore,” said an official, who did not wish to be named.

The civic body also plans to install metallic murals depicting the textile mill workers’ lives at the entrance of the museum. BMC has roped in students of JJ School of Arts to help with the mural designs.

According to the official, the 1,000-sqm garden will have a colourful landscape of Solapur shawls, with sitting areas. The phase 1 will cost Rs6.4 crore.

While phase 1 is expected to be completed in the next six months, it will take 3-4 months more to finalise plans for phase 2. Under phase 2, the mills will be restored as Indian textile galleries and exhibition spaces showcasing generations of mill workers, different machines and other historical aspects.