Bailey Road: In one month of its existence, Bihar Museum has attracted thousands of visitors and raked in Rs 30 lakh.

The response from the public has come as a fillip for officials managing the facility and they hope that the Rs 518 crore state-of-the-art museum would now become financially self-sufficient.

"The response is tremendous and has filled us with enthusiasm. Raking in Rs 30 lakh in its first month is not a small thing. The figures would have been higher but for Diwali and Chhath festivals in October during which the museum was also closed," Bihar Museum director J.P.N. Singh told The Telegraph.

Bihar Museum was inaugurated by chief minister Nitish Kumar on October 2, but was thrown open to the public the next day.

The ticket rates are Rs 100 for Indian adults, Rs 50 for children (five to 12 years) and students, Rs 25 for students coming in groups; Rs 500 for foreign visitors and Rs 250 for their children. A charge of Rs 100 is levied for cameras.

The museum started attracting residents of Patna, as well as, visitors and tourists from outside, from the very first day. Among its VIP guests was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who enquired about the new museum and went to see it during his Patna visit on October 14.

However, director Singh was not sure about the exact number of visitors due to the different ticket rates, but added that the footfall was quite high and could be judged by the big crowds inside and the large number of vehicles parked outside.

"The ticket sales have given us hope that Bihar Museum could become financially self-sufficient as envisaged by our mentor and state chief secretary, Anjani Kumar Singh," director Singh said.

The Bihar Museum boss said the specially fabricated cases to house artefacts have started arriving from Germany and the first lot containing 40 cases has reached. Altogether 228 such cases are to be imported.

On the other hand, Patna Museum, which remained closed for almost a month for renovation after around 3,000 artefacts were shifted from it in September, is also experiencing an upswing in the number of visitors. It attracted 4,679 persons between October 11 and November 1, indicating that there has been no negative impact on footfall following the opening of Bihar Museum.

"There has been no decline in the number of visitors till now. Instead we can say that the number is a shade higher if we compare it to previous months. More visitors come during winter months. It seems that awareness about museums has increased among the common people," Patna Museum curator Shankar Suman told The Telegraph.

Suman said the land with Patna Museum is being measured after chief minister Nitish Kumar recently announced that it will be developed to add more facilities for visitors.

The Bihar Museum is spread across 13.5 acres along Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, better known as Bailey Road, and has been built at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

Canada-based Lord Cultural Resources was hired as the master consultant. Japanese firm Maki and Associates won the contract as main architectural consultant, and proposed to execute the design with the help of Mumbai-based Opolis Architects. The foundation stone was laid on June 9, 2013, and construction work started in July the same year.