MuseumClosed Deepavali, Ganesha Chaturthi

Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

#4of 8 places to visit in BengaluruBengaluru, Karnataka

Also known as VITM · Visvesvaraya Museum

Quick answer

Opening hours: 09:30–18:00. Entry: ₹100. Allow 2 hrs. Best time: 09:30 – 11:00.

Updated 18 September 2026 · Compiled by Traveliac, AI-assisted · 5 min read

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Photo: Gpkp / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Opening hours: 09:30–18:00; 09:30 – 18:00 daily (ticket counter closes 17:30)
Entry fee: ₹100; Ticket from
Time needed: 2 hrs
Best time of day: 09:30 – 11:00
Best months: Oct – Mar
Address: Kasturba Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001

About Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum opened on 14 July 1962 on the southern edge of Cubbon Park, built to honour engineer and statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya on a plot of roughly 4,000 square metres. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru presided over the inauguration, a detail that signals how the museum was conceived: as a national instrument for popularising science and engineering in a newly industrialising India, not a municipal curiosity cabinet. The building holds around 14 galleries today, run under the National Council of Science Museums, part of the Ministry of Culture. The Engine Hall remains the museum's most physically imposing gallery, housing full-scale historic engines and machinery that trace the mechanical technologies Visvesvaraya himself worked with as an irrigation and civil engineer. Newer additions — a Space Technology gallery, a Biotechnology gallery, and a dinosaur enclave — sit alongside the older Electrotechnic gallery, giving the museum a layered feel where 1960s exhibit design shares floor space with 21st-century interactive displays.

Best time of day: 09:30 – 11:00. Before school group tours fill the Engine Hall and Fun Science gallery.

Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum timings

Opening hours: 09:30–18:00; Mon–Sun 09:30–18:00; 09:30 – 18:00 daily (ticket counter closes 17:30)
Closed on: Deepavali, Ganesha Chaturthi

Mon–Sun	09:30–18:00

Opening hours compiled from vismuseum.gov.in and public records, last updated 18 September 2026. They change without notice — confirm before you travel. How we write these guides

Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum ticket price

Entry fees for Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum
Ticket	Price
Indian visitors	₹100
Foreign visitors	₹100
Children	Free
Camera	Free

General entry ₹100, effective April 2026 per the museum's own ticket page; under-5s, uniformed defence and police personnel, and visitors with disabilities enter free. Add-on attractions are ticketed separately: 3D Show ₹50, Science on a Sphere ₹50, Taramandal planetarium ₹20, Wright Brothers' Flyer simulator ₹60. Older listings citing ₹85 are outdated — as of 2026, verify at the counter.

Prices compiled from vismuseum.gov.in and public records, last updated 18 September 2026. They change without notice — confirm before you travel. How we write these guides

Best time to visit Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

Quiet
Moderate
Busy

09:30 – 11:00
Opening HourBest time to go
First visitors of the day have the Engine Hall and Electrotechnic gallery largely to themselves. Best window for the planetarium's first show.
Quiet
11:00 – 14:00
School Group Peak
Weekday school tours arrive in batches, concentrating in the Fun Science and Space Technology galleries. Add-on show queues lengthen.
Busy
14:00 – 16:30
Afternoon
School groups thin out; family visitors and weekend crowds fill the gap on Saturdays and Sundays specifically.
Moderate
16:30 – 18:00
Late Afternoon Close
Ticket counter closes at 17:30. Remaining visitors move through the final galleries before the 18:00 closing.
Quiet

History of Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the museum's namesake, served as Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918 and is credited with engineering projects across the state including the Krishna Raja Sagara dam; he was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1955. His death in 1962, the same year the museum opened, gave the inauguration an added civic weight — Bengaluru's science museum arrived as a memorial to a figure who had already shaped the city's infrastructure decades earlier.

The museum's placement beside Cubbon Park was deliberate, joining the Government Museum and Venkatappa Art Gallery to form a cluster of public institutions inherited from Bengaluru's colonial-era civic core. Over six decades the National Council of Science Museums expanded VITM's original engine-and-machinery focus into a broader science-education mandate, adding a planetarium (Taramandal), a 3D theatre, and a Science on a Sphere exhibit that projects planetary and climate data onto a suspended globe. The museum now anchors a network of NCSM regional science centres linked to it, including units in Tirunelveli, Kalaburagi, Tirupati, and Calicut.

Rules & etiquette at Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

Tickets are sold at the counter until 17:30, half an hour before the museum closes; arriving later risks being turned away from the paid add-on attractions, which run on fixed show times rather than continuous entry. General photography is permitted through most galleries, though specific sections reserve the right to restrict cameras at staff discretion — check signage at gallery entrances rather than assuming blanket permission.

Visitors are held liable for damage to exhibits under the museum's own terms, a rule enforced more visibly in the hands-on Fun Science gallery where children are encouraged to touch working models. Large bags are best left at the entrance cloakroom rather than carried through the Engine Hall's narrower walkways.

School groups dominate the museum on weekday mornings during the academic term, arriving in batches that can fill the Engine Hall and Space Technology gallery by 10:30. The museum stays open on both government and religious holidays except Deepavali and Ganesha Chaturthi, making it a reliable indoor option during Bengaluru's rainy afternoons.

Tips for visiting Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

1
Book the planetarium and 3D Show slots as soon as you arrive rather than saving them for later — the Taramandal in particular runs limited daily shows and sells out during school-holiday weeks. The ₹60 Wright Brothers' Flyer simulator is a genuine highlight for children and is worth the extra ticket if only one add-on fits the budget.
2
Pair a VITM visit with the Government Museum and Venkatappa Art Gallery a short walk away inside the same Cubbon Park cluster — all three can be covered in a single morning without leaving the park's southern edge, and none requires backtracking through Bengaluru traffic between stops.
3
The museum's Cubbon Park Metro connection makes it one of the easier heritage-cluster visits in the city to reach without a car. Arrive by 09:30 opening if travelling with young children, since the Engine Hall and Fun Science gallery become genuinely crowded once school buses start arriving mid-morning.

How to reach Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum

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Kasturba Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001Directions in Google Maps

From Kempegowda International Airport (BLR)
₹700–₹1,000
35 km · 60–90 min
Prepaid cab
From KSR Bengaluru City Junction
₹60–₹100
2.5 km · 10 min
Auto
From Cubbon Park Metro Station
₹10–₹40
0.4 km · 5–8 min walk
Metro fare depending on origin

Nearest airport

From Kempegowda International Airport (BLR)

approximately 35 km, 60–90 minutes by road.

Nearest railway station

From KSR Bengaluru City Junction

approximately 2.5 km; Cubbon Park Metro Station (Purple Line, Exit D) is a short walk away.

Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum FAQs

What is the entry fee for Visvesvaraya Museum?

₹100 general admission, effective April 2026 per the museum's official ticket page. Children under 5, uniformed defence and police personnel, and visitors with disabilities enter free; add-on attractions like the planetarium and 3D show are ticketed separately.

Is Visvesvaraya Museum closed on Mondays?

No. The museum opens every day of the year except Deepavali and Ganesha Chaturthi, unlike many science museums elsewhere in India that keep a weekly closure.

Who was the museum named after?

Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the engineer and former Diwan of Mysore who received the Bharat Ratna in 1955 and died in 1962, the same year the museum opened. Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the building on 14 July 1962.

How long does a visit to Visvesvaraya Museum take?

Around two hours for the roughly 14 permanent galleries. Add 30–45 minutes if booking the planetarium, 3D show, or flight simulator, which run on separate fixed showtimes rather than continuous entry.

Compiled with AI assistance from official sources and public records, and published only after the checks in How we write these guides. Nobody from Traveliac has visited this place. Last updated 18 September 2026. How we rank and check places