India, France come together to build world's largest museum in Delhi's Raisina Hill

The museum, to be named 'Yuga Yugeen Bharat National Museum' will tell the story of India, a timeline spanning more than 5,000 years.

The museum will come up in the North Block and South Block buildings, which at present houses the office of foreign ministry, home ministry, defence ministry, finance ministry, and several other ministerial offices.

The museum, deemed a project of national heritage, prestige, and importance, will cover an area of 1.17 lakh square metres with 950 rooms spread over a basement and three storey.

In his speech after India and France signed the agreement, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said: "What is being seen today is a very important expression of international cooperation, one that is built on exchanges of best practices, on sharing of experiences."

"We are gathered here today for a project of great national importance...When the South Block and North Block become the kind of museum that is envisaged, I think we will veritably be seeing an inspiration for the remaking of Bharat."

The Raisina Hill, which houses the two identical blocks facing each other, and the Rashtrapati Bhavan next to them were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker between 1911-1931.

France too has a similar history with regard to its world famous museum 'The Louvre, which has global expertise in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings of archeological significance.