Patna, Sep 4 (IANS): The Bihar government has shortlisted five global architecture firms to design and build a world class museum in Patna, according to the state building construction department.

To be built on 17 acres of land in the heart the city, the museum will showcase Bihar's heritage dating to the Buddha and Mahavir.

"The theme will be Bihar's contribution to the history of the world's civilisation," Bihar Art and Culture Minister Sukhda Pandey said. "Vaishali here was the first democracy in the world."

According to the department, the shortlisted firms are the New York-based Studio Art, Tokyo-based Maki and Associates, Boston-based Safadi Art, London-based Foster and Partner, and Oslo-based Snohetta.

Each firm will submit a proposal by November and one among them will be selected by year-end. The timeline for completion is four years.

A brainchild of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the new museum seeks to join the ranks of Grand Egyptian Museum (Egypt), Louvre-Lens (France), Guggenheim in Bilbao (Spain) and the the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg (Canada), an official said.

Earlier this year, the department had floated a global tender to engage architects. "These five were shortlisted of from 22 on the basis their wide golbal experience in designing and building," the official said.

Toronto-based Lord Cultural Resources has been selected as the master consultant for the project. Last month, its top offcials had made a conceptual presentation before Nitish Kumar.

The firm has been master consultant in about 1,800 such projects in 48 countries, including the National September 11 Memorial and Museum (New York), National Museum (Singapore), King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture at Dhahran (Saudi Arabia) and West Kowloon Cultural District (Hong Kong).