A visitor at the gallery of Jobra Maritime Museum in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Dec. 1: The state’s first maritime museum at Jobra has now turned into a favourite tourist destination as the turnout of visitors has crossed 50,000 in just seven months of its inauguration.

Official records indicate that 50,700 visitors have so far visited the museum since its inauguration in April.

A record footfall of 8,198 visitors has been registered in November.

The maritime museum, which showcases the rich maritime history of the state, was inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on the occasion of Utkal Divas on April 1.

“The Jobra Maritime Museum has been successful in attracting visitors from various parts of the state and country as there is an average footfall of 4,000 visitors a month,” said museum director Basudev Mohapatra.

Mohapatra hoped that the turnout visitors would go up further after the much-awaited aquarium project inside the museum was opened to the public.

More than 12 species of marine creatures, including fresh and saline water fishes, would be kept inside two big aquariums while there would be another open pond where the children could feed the fish.

The work for construction of the aquarium is going on in full swing and it is likely to be inaugurated in January 2014.

At present, there are 10 galleries at the maritime museum, which is housed in a building that had a navigational workshop during the Raj.

There is an introduction gallery about the workshop and a maritime history gallery in which visitors can have a glimpse of the rich maritime history of the country as well as that of the state.

Besides, there is a specially gallery on boat building, a workshop gallery, a maritime ritual gallery, a navigation gallery, a gallery on monuments on the state’s coast, a boat display shed and a boat repairing jetty.

“Emphasis has been given on depicting the rich maritime history of the state and visitors are keen to know more about various artefacts, including various traditional tools and British-era machines used at the Jobra workshop,” said assistant curator Sangita Mishra.

The Indian National Trust for Art and Culture (Intach) had carried out restoration of the workshop building at Jobra, which was converted into the museum at a cost of Rs 10 crore.

The Brits had set up the workshop at Jobra in 1868 and made Cuttack the hub of irrigation and inland waterways in the region.

“The maritime museum is fascinating as one can have a detail picture of the rich maritime history which is also showcased here in the form of various audio-visual modes,” said Rakesh Agarwal, a visitor from Bengal.