The responsibility for this challenging task, which involves expenditure running into several crore of rupees, has been taken up by Mumbai-based NGOs, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and Sabrang Trust.

However, the question that remains unanswered is that how would funds be raised for such a gigantic project as the owners of 18 bungalows and six flats, who survived the riots, would have to be paid at the current market rate of real estate prices in the locality.

Teesta Setalvad, associated with the two NGOs and the main brain behind the idea, has already issued an appeal to philanthropists and sympathisers of the 2002 riot victims to contribute money to convert the idea into a reality. The contributor's name will be displayed on a scroll of honour at the museum.

"Though it is certainly a very difficult task, I hope that we will be able to raise the money required for the purpose," she said.

She said that they do not want the houses of the victims for free. "We will make the payment at the prevailing rates so that the survivors can buy a house or land at a place of their own choice," she said, adding that the survivors and owners of the bungalows had agreed to offer their houses to her trust for the museum. "I have hired government approved surveyors who will fix the price after surveying the area," she added.

Regarding the payments to be made to the house owners, she said it would be done in phases. "Those needing the money immediately will be paid first and those who can wait will be given a little later," she said.

Setalvad went on to say that a meeting of the riot survivors of Ahmedabad from Gulberg, Naroda Patia and Sardarpura would be held at the museum to pay homage to those who had lost their lives in the riots. Qurankhani (recitation of Quran) followed by prayers would be held every year on February 28 at this place.

While preserving the bungalows and flats that were burnt down by the rioters, a community hall in the society will map the Godhra train burning, and carnages in Naroda Gaon and Patiya, Ode, Vaddoara, Panchmalahs and Dahod.

The museum will also have space for several instances of communal violence in other parts of the country over the decades, including Kashmiri Pundits, Sikh survivors of 1984 riots, the voices of survivors from Meerut and Bhagalpur among others.

It was in Gulberg Society that the Parsi couple — Dara and Rupa Mody-lived, who lost their 14-year-old son, Azhar, in the violence. The incident later became the central theme of the movie, Parzania.