Art Gallery Project to be Revived in Bahawalpur Museum

Art Gallery Project to be Revived in Bahawalpur Museum

The Punjab government has decided to revive the incomplete project of the Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi Memorial Hall and Art Gallery in Bahawalpur Museum, providing funds for its completion.

The building department has prepared a revised plan of the building on in the museum premises on the Library Road and forwarded it to the Punjab Information and Culture Department to pass it to the Planning and Development (P&D) for final approval. The revised plan will cost about Rs40 million.

It may be mentioned the work on the project was started in 2005-6 during the PML-Q’s tenure and it was to be completed in three years. But after the 2008 election, the PML-N government withheld its funds which were not released after that with the result that only the structure of the building was seen standing.

The under-construction hall and gallery have a mixed Italian and Rajasthani architectural design.

The hall, named after the ruler of the State of Bahawalpur, after its completion, would have artwork, models and rare pictures of the era of the defunct state and its late rulers to teach and apprise the new generation of the state’s 250-year old history. Besides, paintings of local and national painters would be displayed would also be displayed in the gallery.

MRI: The Punjab government has approved the installation of an “open” MRI machine at the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH).

The new MRI will cost Rs80m and is expected to be functional at the hospital after its import during the current financial year.

Dawn learnt the new MRI would replace the old functional but “closed” MRI in the hospital which would be the first-ever public sector health facility to have this latest equipment.

BVH MS Dr Muhammad Irshad told Dawn the Punjab health secretary had sanctioned the funds for the new MRI.

He said the hospital’s existing closed or covered MRI machine was like a tunnel which made the people afraid and hesitant.

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