To undertake a series of cultural conservation projects, government-owned Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) will work with the National Culture Fund to upgrade museums and restoration of heritage buildings.    

An MoU for partnership between the NCF and HUDCO was signed on October 18 in the presence of Union Minister of Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja. The agreement proposes a joint implementation of conservation projects worth Rs 15 crore.    

The HUDCO has outlined a number of areas in which it will lend support as part of its corporate social responsibility. The projects to be undertaken jointly with the NCF as well as the Archaeological Survey of India include a Rs 35 lakh training cycle to groom conservationists and creation of a website on heritage and disaster management.    

Besides, an agreement will later be finalised for a project to upgrade ASI museums in well-known Buddhist sites of Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh at a cost of Rs 500 lakh, apart from a Rs 9 crore conservation project for three heritage school buildings in Pondicherry.    

Another project that is on the cards as part of this arrangement is environmental improvement and waste management initiative in Nizamuddin Basti that will be implemented with the involvement of Aga Khan Foundation.