Two of New Delhi's most storied sandstone buildings — the nerve centres of Indian governance for over a century — are set to be reborn as the world's largest museum display area. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, welcomed a Union Cabinet decision to transform the iconic North and South Block buildings on Raisina Hill, New Delhi into the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum, a sweeping civilisational showcase that will bring thousands of years of Indian heritage to life through immersive galleries and world-class exhibitions.

From secretariat to civilisational showcase

North Block and South Block — the twin early 20th-century secretariat buildings that have long housed the Finance Ministry, the Home Ministry, and the Prime Minister's Office — are part of the historic Central Vista complex. Their relocation of key ministries, enabled by the Central Vista redevelopment project approved in 2019, clears the path for this transformation. The Cabinet's decision on Wednesday is the formal trigger that sets that transition in motion.

PM Modi framed the ambition in bold strokes: 'Imagine New Delhi becoming home to the world's largest museum display area? Think scale. Think culture.' The museum's scope, as described, will span ancient knowledge systems, mathematics and astronomy, architecture, art, languages and spirituality — a horizontal survey of Indian civilisation rendered in stone and screen.

What the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum will cover

The name itself signals intent: Yuge Yugeen translates roughly as 'spanning the ages' or 'timeless across epochs.' The museum is designed not as a static archive but as an experiential destination — 'immersive experiences and world-class galleries,' in the Prime Minister's words — aimed at the millions of domestic and international visitors who flock to New Delhi's heritage corridor each year.

The two Lutyens-era blocks, symmetrically flanking the approach to Rashtrapati Bhavan, offer a combined footprint of exceptional scale, which is precisely what gives the 'world's largest' claim its architectural plausibility. Converting that footprint from bureaucratic offices into curated cultural space is a logistical undertaking that will require parallel completion of new ministry facilities built under the Central Vista programme.

A pattern of reclaiming colonial-era spaces for public culture

The announcement fits a broader government pattern of converting colonial-era administrative buildings into public cultural and heritage venues — a symbolic as much as practical act, recasting structures built for imperial governance as expressions of Indian civilisation on its own terms. Similar repurposing has occurred at other historic government properties in recent years, with the emphasis consistently on displaying ancient Indian knowledge systems alongside art and architecture.

The Ministry of Culture is among the key stakeholders in the project's next phase, which will involve decisions on exhibition curation, possible international collaborations, and the sequencing of construction alongside ministry relocations — the two timelines now inextricably linked.

When the galleries finally open, Raisina Hill will have completed a quiet but profound transformation: from the place where colonial and then independent India governed its people, to the place where those people come to understand who they are.