Forty-nine historic buildings spread over the sprawling Hill Palace Museum complex in Thripunithura have been renovated to their past glory by the State Department of Archaeology.

The renovated buildings and the premises would be opened to visitors on Saturday by the Minister for Education and Culture M.A. Baby. The work on doing up the sprawling gardens is under way.

Apart from repairing the buildings and restoring the doors and windows, roofs were added to a few which did not have them.

A two-metre-wide walkway too has been redone around the periphery of the compound, since many people frequent the premises for their regular walk.

Two hundred lamp posts have been installed to light up the locale during early morning and night. Twelve closed-circuit cameras have been installed at vantage locations in the museum that treasures the crown and many other items used by the erstwhile Kochi royal family.

“Orders have been placed with Keltron for another 24 cameras. The hand-held metal detectors would soon be replaced with door-frame metal detectors which scan the full body as people pass by. These apart, the height of the compound wall has been raised to eight feet, while taking care to retain the original design,” said Sylendranath K.R., the Registrar of Centre for Heritage Studies and the officer-in-charge of the museum.

Rs 4.50 crore spent

The renovation and enhancing of security measures was done at a cost of Rs 4.50 crore sanctioned by the 12th Finance Commission to renovate protected monuments.

Three ponds in the compound and their ‘kulappuramalikas' too were restored. The ‘ettukettu', where the royalty once lived was renovated and this too would be used to exhibit antiques.

A high-tension line now powers the electrical fittings, supported by generator back-up.

The concrete strong-room in the museum has been air-conditioned. The renovation works were executed with the help of KITCO and SIDCO.

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