patna one look at the unfinished exteriors and a passerby may dismiss the recentlyinaugurated bihar museum on bailey road as just another gallery but enter the museum and you will step into a treasure trove of multiple eras of bihars history the childrens gallery of the museum is home to a motley of artefacts scenes from chandragupt maurya to sher shah suris reign to the ruins of nalanda and telhara universities have been recreated besides putting up lifesize replicas of birds and animals thousands of people have visited the museum since the inauguration of two of its galleries by cm nitish kumar on august 7 said museums assistant curator ravi shankar gupta adding children and youngsters have contributed to maximum footfall the best part of the childrens gallery is that kids can touch everything besides the lifesize models of birds rhinoceros tiger horse and snake etc there are replicas of a cave rabbit burrow termite mount the ganga sher shah suris market area and resting place there is a bird watching area also different entry arches mark the different eras the concept is of play and learn usually kids find museums very dull as they cant touch anything here they have the freedom to examine everything themselves says aparna sinha children and family programme coordinator of the museum kids can also learn about bihars archaeological heritage and how archaeologists work in the discovery room we have several audiovisual screens which run short animated films for kids there are some game and puzzles too for their entertainment says museum staff aakanksha roy in fact if kids play and win the video games they get an opportunity to sit on chandragupt mauryas throne replica and get clicked there are several seating spaces in the museum where visitors can rest if they get tired while touring the 135acre area of the museum while no eatables are allowed inside the museum a canteen for kids lunchbox is set to be opened in the next threefour weeks two souvenir shops one dedicated to kids is already open on the museum campus the museum is open from 1030am to 430pm on all days except monday an orientation theatre in the orientation gallery currently runs four shows of a short film of 1015 minutes duration on bihar museum the show timings are 1230pm 130pm 230pm and 330pm it also has bihars timeline and several writeups and photographs informing visitors about bihars history students shantanu ranjan and ashish kumar singh who were on a visit to the museum said they could not have thought of such a place in the state capital till six months ago it is world class the duo said the remaining four galleries history gallery contemporary art and regional gallery bihari diaspora and visual storage gallery are expected to be complete in the next six to eight months after which the entire museum will be opened for people