(Top) Old printing machines at the Odisha Government Press and fishes in an aquarium at Jobra Maritime Museum in Cuttack on Thursday. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug. 21: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today inaugurated the Odisha Printing Museum, a first-of-its-kind in the state, on the Odisha Government Press premises here. He also inaugurated the aquarium on the Jobra Maritime Museum premises here.

“It’s a great initiative. One can go through the evolution of printing presses in the country,” said 31-year-old Priyadarshi Acharya, a professional from Pune.

Around 50 printing machines have been kept in two special galleries divided into composing gallery, letterpress printing gallery, pre-press gallery, offset printing gallery, binding gallery and workshop gallery.

The museum has come up on nearly 7,000sqft. A publication gallery displaying old government publications will be added. It will also have an audio-visual display system and touch screen information on the printing history.

Two letter presses, used by the former rulers, including the Balangir king in 1913 and Keonjhar king in 1934, said to be the oldest ones are on display. The Odisha Government Press, a service organisation, was set up in 1936 to meet printing, stationery and machinery need of all departments of the government.

Till 1936, the press was under the jurisdiction of erstwhile Bihar-Odisha State, and in the same year, some machinery and equipment were transferred from Patna to Cuttack after Odisha became a separate state.

In another development, visitors can now have a glimpse of the life under sea as the much-awaited aquarium project in the city has been opened for the public.

Over 100 species of fish, collected from various parts of the world, are now being exhibited at the dedicated aquarium built on over 3,000sqft inside the maritime museum complex.

All the fish species have been displayed in 11 special exhibits and one open tank inside the aquarium project in the complex.

One can witness various exotic fish as well as rare species, including Arapima Gigas, world’s largest freshwater fish, red tail catfish of South America, the deadly black piranha, frontosa cichlid from the Lake Tanganyika in Africa in their natural habitat in the aquarium.

“It was quite amazing to know about the aquatic life under sea, especially in the state, which is yet to be explored. We are happy that such a wonderful project has come up in Cuttack — which will certainly be a major tourist attraction,” said Chandan Sahu, a visitor from Bhubaneswar.

“The aquarium is fully air-conditioned, while it is certainly going to be the best place for the children, especially who can feed the Japanese Koi fish that have been kept inside an open tank,” said Dikshya Mohapatra, another visitor from the city.