Sept. 18: The museum on the ground floor of Town Hall will be dismantled to allow restoration of the heritage structure, it was decided at a mayoral council meeting of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) today.

The dismantling will be over by October 10 and restoration will begin after that, a source in the corporation said.

The museum, which was opened in 2002, has fibreglass models depicting various phases of Calcutta's history such as the Bengal renaissance, the Partition of Bengal and the independence struggle. It also has a gallery dedicated to films. An audio-visual presentation on the Independence struggle is shown to visitors.

The CMC, the custodian of the Town Hall, had conceived the renovation project a couple of years ago but handed over the job to the state public works department (PWD) last year.

"The restoration budget is Rs 18 crore. It will take a year for the work to finish. The time frame may be extended if required," said CMC official.

IIT Roorkee, the consultant for the Town Hall renovation project, will advise PWD engineers on how to go about the restoration work.

A senior engineer of the CMC said "structural distress" had been noticed in the building set up between 1807 and 1813 and its roof is leaking for which extensive repairs are needed.