Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Technology museum in Ballygunge, India

The Birla Industrial & Technological Museum occupies a three-storey colonial-style building on Gurusaday Road in Ballygunge, with a pale pink and cream facade, reddish-brown trim and a central portico topped by a triangular pediment holding a round clock. Its galleries cover electricity, petroleum, nuclear physics and the metallurgy of iron, steel and copper, alongside motive power, communication, mining and transport. An underground mock-up coal mine opened in 1983.

The site at 19A Gurusaday Road was bought by the Tagores in 1898 and later became G. D. Birla's mansion, Birla Park. Birla donated the house and grounds to CSIR in 1956, and the museum opened on 2 May 1959, inaugurated by Union Minister Humayun Kabir. It was India's first central-government science museum and led to the National Council of Science Museums in 1978.

The museum occupies Birla Park, the Ballygunge mansion of industrialist Ghanshyam Das Birla, who donated the house and grounds to CSIR in 1956. Before the Birlas, the site belonged to the Tagore family, and Rabindranath Tagore's daughter Meera Devi spent her childhood there. Visitors can still see the colonial-style building designed by N. Guin & Co. after the Tagore house was demolished.

The museum stands at 19A Gurusaday Road in Ballygunge, in the former Birla Park mansion. The entrance front has a projecting columned portico with a balustrade and a balcony above, and a clock in the triangular pediment. Galleries are spread over three floors, so allow time to move between levels.

A dedicated gallery called 'A World in Darkness' allows visitors with visual impairments to experience scientific concepts through touch and sound. This space demonstrates a thoughtful approach to making science accessible to everyone.