Art, culture and youth affairs minister Sukhda Pandey at the news meet in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Feb. 16: The international museum coming up on Bailey Road will be christened Bihar Museum.

Addressing a news meet, art, culture and youth affairs minister Sukhda Pandey said: “The new museum will be known as Bihar Museum as this is the centenary year of the state.” The minister said as part of the centenary year celebrations, her department was planning to hold a series of functions and execute different projects, including a separate Buddha theme museum at Buddha Smriti Park. A Canada-based firm, Lord Cultural Resources, has been named the master planning consultant for this project. The department would also develop a museum to showcase the life and philosophy of Buddha at Vaishali.

Patna Museum director Umesh Chandra Dwivedi said the Patna Museum would organise an exhibition to highlight contributions of major personalities in the past 100 years. The museum directorate of Bihar would also release two books, Gauravshali Bihar and Protected Monuments. The books would reflect the state’s history of art and culture.