The recently inaugurated Porunai Archaeological Museum has become a major crowd-puller as the museum attracted over 24,000 visitors in just two days – on Friday and Saturday alone – as the people celebrated ‘kari naal’, the day after ‘Pongal’ and on the penultimate day of the ‘Pongal’ holiday.
Even though the advantageously located museum was attracting decent number of visitors ever since it was inaugurated on December 20 last by Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, the caretakers of this museum showcasing prehistoric artefacts excavated from Adichanallur, Sivakalai, Korkai and Thulukkarpatti were struggling to manage the crowd during the Pongal holidays with people from various parts of Tamil Nadu visiting the museum since last Wednesday (January 14). The museum attracted over 7,500 visitors on Wednesday and Thursday.
As the people celebrated ‘kari naal’ on Friday, this number exceeded all expectations as 11,686 persons visited on this day and the number swelled further on Saturday with the visit of 12,350 enthusiasts. Performances by folk artists in the open theatre on ‘Pongal’ and ‘kari naal’ added more colour to to the museum.
“Since more than 1,000 people were waiting in front of the counter at 7 p.m. on Saturday after over 11,000 had already visited during the day, we could not close the business as per the prescribed timings. We allowed them also,” the museum authorities said.
