Chandigarh: Even as the central government has ordered for the closure of the Government Printing Press in Sector 18, the Chandigarh administration has sped up the work to convert the building into a museum of heritage furniture and vintage cars.

UT adviser Manoj Parida said the administration has received three bids to convert the building into a museum and they would soon hold a meeting with the bidders to take the project forward.

Requesting anonymity, a senior UT official said the museum would also aid the administration’s efforts to check the sale of heritage furniture abroad. In the wake of the administration drawing flak over frequent sale of such furniture abroad, it had recently prepared an action plan to check these auctions. The Heritage Protection Cell of the administration had also suggested that the government press building be converted into a heritage furniture museum, he said.

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The UT administration has prepared an inventory of as many as 2,793 heritage items belonging to Chandigarh, which have been divided into 190 categories. These include furniture, tapestry, drawings and other items, which were designed, made and used by city’s creator French architect Le Corbusier, his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and others associated with the founding and planning of Chandigarh in the 1950s and 60s. 

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