Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar visited Patna Museum for three hours on Monday and outlined a development plan for it.

The visit came against the backdrop of him facing flak from certain sections, including professors, historians, archaeologists, researchers, for "destroying" Patna Museum by shifting most of its prized artefacts, including the 3rd century BC stone sculpture of Yakshi, to the new Bihar Museum. The plan Nitish outlined to senior officials such as chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, art and culture and youth affairs principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad seemed a move to make amends.

"We have to expand Patna Museum," Nitish said. "I had visited this place some years ago and had seen that exhibits were not properly displayed. Bihar Museum was constructed and some of them were shifted to it. However, there are still a large number of exhibits which have not been displayed." He said the Natural History gallery was a speciality of Patna Museum, and said the exhibits could be displayed better. "We want to expand Patna Museum while maintaining its façade," he said. "The development could be made from three sides along the boundary wall and the construction would be similar to the present design of the museum building."

The chief minister added that the entrance to the new single-storey building would be from within the museum campus while the roadside portion would act as a boundary wall which could be decked-up by displaying paintings. Eight to 10 feet high iron grills would be used to secure the campus.

Asking the senior officials to consider the development plan, Nitish also directed them to ensure proper maintenance of the Patna Museum's lawns.

Nitish visited galleries devoted to terracotta objects, stone sculpture, metal art, weapons, paintings, Buddha's relics, scholar Rahul Sankrityayan, first President Dr Rajendra Prasad and others. Patna Museum curator Shankar Suman guided him, describing the exhibits' and answering his questions.

The chief minister directed officials to display it prominently the 24-spoke wheel from the Mauryan era (third to second century BC) discovered in excavations at Bulandi Bagh in Patna.

He also went to Bihar Research Society within the museum premises to see Buddhist manuscripts brought by Rahul Sankrityayan from Tibet and said they should be properly displayed. Rahul's daughter Jaya Sankrityayan had written to him last month and requested not to shift the objects donated by her father to Patna Musuem.

"We have discussed with Sarnath University (in Uttar Pradesh) to digitise the manuscripts brought by Rahul Sankrityayan and also translate them into Hindi and English," Nitish said.

At Rajendra Prasad's gallery, he pointed out that the coat the first President used to wear was missing and asked officials to ensure it is brought back to display.

Though officials praised Nitish's expansion plans, they admitted it would take time to implement.