New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS): More than 11,000 art objects from ten museums have been digitised to make these national treasures available to a wider audience, a statement of the ministry of culture said Tuesday.

The minister of culture and tourism Shripad Yesso Naik launched the portal www.museumsofindia.gov.in here Tuesday that covered artefacts from the Indian Museum, the Victoria Memorial Hall, the National Museum, the Allahabad Museum, the Salar Jung Museum, the National Gallery of Modern Art - Mumbai and Bangalore, the Archaeological Museum - Nagarjunakonda and Goa.

"The ministry of culture has decided to digitise the collections of all the museums under its control as well as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the first phase of this project," said the statement.

"This is done to make available collections of all its museums on a single and uniform platform over the internet in a unique experiment being done on such a large scale worldwide," it added.

Apart from this a database of more than two lakh antiquities has also been prepared by the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA.)

"Digitisation will greatly help the scholars, school students as well as general viewers by providing them glimpses of the rich collections of our museums, otherwise hidden from the public eye," the statement said.

The project is expected to be completed in the next three to four years.

The museums expected to be covered in the next phase are the Ratnagiri Museum, the Bodhgaya Museum and the Sarnath Museum, among a few others.