First day after lockdown turns lackluster for Salarjung Museum

HYDERABAD: Salarjung Museum, which was reopened on Sunday at the end of the lockdown, had fewer visitors on day one. The museum shut its doors as per the instructions of the government when the second wave of the Coronavirus was rampant, but was reopened as the cases of Covid-19 are under control and positive cases are low.

The Salarjung Museum, on holidays and during vacations, usually has visitors around 7,000 to 8,000 per day, whereas on regular days the visitors’ strength is 3,000 to 4,000. On Sunday when it was reopened, there were hardly any visitors, as only around 400 tickets were sold. This museum is widely visited by those from other states.

Rizwan and his friend from Attapur, who came to visit the museum, said they were excited as it was the first day after the lockdown.

Ritwik Yadav from Nizamabad, who came to visit Hyderabad along with his family said, “We were all sitting at home all these days because of the lockdown, and now we got a chance to visit Salarjung Museum which is one of the most happening places in Hyderabad.”

Ravinder Kunar, attender at the Museum, said, “We are 270 attenders deployed all over the place and we are instructing visitors to put on masks at all times and also follow the social distancing norms.”

A little distance away, there was a huge milling crowd in the Charminar. Many tourists also took a ticket and climbed up the monument which also reopened on Sunday.