India's most storied colonial-era address is about to get a civilizational makeover. Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Wednesday, 11 November 2026 that the Union Cabinet under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the development of the 'Yuge Yugeen Bharat Sangrahalaya' — a museum of timeless India — within the historic North and South Block complex in New Delhi, set to become the world's largest museum by display area.

'Yuge Yugeen Bharat' — what the Cabinet has greenlighted

The approved museum will display 18 lakh (1.8 million) artifacts selected from across the country, bringing to life India's civilizational journey, knowledge traditions, and art forms. The sheer scale is striking: when complete, the institution will claim the title of the world's largest museum by display area — a benchmark that would place it ahead of storied institutions from Washington to Paris.

Crucially, the heritage character of the Lutyens-era North and South Block buildings is to be preserved, not erased. The museum will be developed as a cultural institution within the existing complex, retrofitting colonial architecture into a showcase for pre-colonial and ancient Indian civilisation — a deliberate symbolic inversion.

Central Vista's next chapter after the new Parliament

This approval is the latest milestone in the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, cleared in 2020, which envisions a wholesale transformation of New Delhi's power corridor. The project already delivered a new Parliament building in 2023, and the plan has always included repurposing North and South Block — currently housing the Prime Minister's Office and the Home Ministry — after government functions shift to new premises.

Converting these buildings into public cultural spaces rather than demolishing or mothballing them answers a long-standing question about their post-relocation fate. The government's framing is consistent with a broader pattern: large-scale cultural infrastructure investments that anchor India's ancient history as a soft-power asset, from revamped national museums to heritage tourism corridors.

Eighteen lakh artifacts, one civilizational argument

The number 18 lakh artifacts is not incidental. Shah's post underlines that the selection will be drawn from institutions and collections across the entire country, making the museum a national aggregator rather than a Delhi-centric showcase. The stated aim — that 'the world will see India's thousands of years of civilisation and glorious history, and our coming generations will connect with their roots' — signals both an international tourism ambition and a domestic cultural-education mission.

What remains to be detailed are the project timeline, the specific curatorial and artifact-selection framework, and the budget allocation — details that parliamentary sessions and subsequent government announcements will need to fill in.

The Raisina Hill skyline has looked the same for a century. If the cabinet's approval translates into the world's largest museum, the view from that hill — and what it means — is about to change permanently.