Madurai Gandhi Museum shows up as the ‘favoured’ crowd puller

The Gandhi Museum in Madurai. File photo

Gandhi Memorial Museum here has retained its position as a more favoured destination than National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi by having attracted more visitors than the museum for Gandhiji in the National Capital for the second consecutive year.

The annual report of Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai states that between April 2012 and March 2013, the museum had 1,94,846 visitors. On an average, the museum attracted around 14,000 visitors every month.

The National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi recorded 88,090 visitors between April 2012 and March 2013, A. Annamalai, Director of National Gandhi Museum, told

The Hindu on Tuesday over phone. The museum in New Delhi had an average of 7,000 visitors every month, he added.

Though Gandhi Memorial Museum here has recorded twice the number of average visitors that National Gandhi Museum had, it has seen a downfall in the number of visitors compared to its record in 2011 and 2012.

Between April 2011 and March 2012, the Madurai museum had 2,49,952 visitors.

On the other hand, there is a rise in the number of visitors at the National Museum in comparison to its record in 2011 and 2012, where it had attracted 80,125 visitors.

The main gallery of the museum in the city is to get a fresh look soon as renovation works are under way.

M.P. Gurusamy, secretary of Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai, said that no specific reason could be attributed to the fluctuation in the number of visitors every year.

“We will study the records and assess the fluctuation. We are taking efforts to do away with the Friday holidays to the museum for the benefit of visitors. After the completion of renovation work we expect a rise in the number of visitors,” he said.

The museum authorities were also planning to employ more employees, in addition to the existing workforce of 25, but lack of funds was hindering their efforts, he concluded.