HARIPUR, June 20: The construction work on Haripur Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which started here the other day, would be completed by the next fiscal year, said Assistant Director Haripur Museum Shakirullah while talking to Dawn here on Friday.

The Haripur museum is being established with the financial support of University of Hazara that had earlier financed the setting up of Garden Campus Museum at Dhodial and Abbott Museum in Abbottabad.

The museum would have antiquities belonging to different civilisations like Gandhara, pre-historic and Buddhist civilisations that were discovered in Haripur. The museum would be linked with all the monuments and sites of the yore in the district.

Shakirullah said that the finance committee of Hazara University had approved the initial cost of Rs0.5 million, while the allocation would be made later for the main building after the approval of its design.

He said that famous architects of the country had been approached for the design of the building of the museum, as Vice Chancellor Hazara University Dr Ehsan Ali Khan, who himself is a known archaeologist, wanted to establish the Haripur museum as a unique construction in the country. Shakirullah said that after the approval of the design, work would be started on the main building, which was expected to be completed within a year’s time.

He said that for protection and preservation of Fort Harkishan Garh here the VC Hazara University had already taken up the matter with the provincial Archaeology Department at Peshawar and sought its help for declaring the fort as the protected monument.

Haripur is rich in archaeological sites dating back to the Islamic, pre-historic, Gandhara and Buddhist civilisations, he said, adding that over 207 sites had been discovered in the area.