Government officials in the southern Indian state of Kerala recently announced the first stage of the long planned Muziris Heritage Tourism Circuit will be completed this fall.

A fisherman casts a traditional net into the sea off the coast of the South Indian state of Kerala. Plans for a new tourism circuit in the region are nearing completion.

Led by the Kerala Tourism Department, the project plans to string together a number of historic monuments and sites tied to the lost city of Muziris, an important multicultural seaport and trading hub that existed between the 1st and 14th centuries in Southern India, using a series of modern museums and excavations.

“Construction of museums … is nearing completion, and a batch of five boat services connecting the circuit area is expected to arrive soon,” a government official with the project recently told The Hindu.

Plans call for a total of 25 museums to be built in the coming years. The Tourism Department of Kerala believes the museums will help tourists better understand area’s rich heritage as an ancient port of international trade. A network of boat services will ferry travelers through the circuit.

Officials expect the current phase to be inaugurated by during the Onam festival in September