THE final go-ahead will be given tonight for work to start on Southampton’s £15m Titanic Museum – despite questions hanging over its funding.

More than 150,000 people a year are expected to visit the Sea City Museum when it opens in April 2012, on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic tragedy.

But despite winning a £4.6m Heritage Lottery Fund grant Southampton City Council will need to borrow millions to make sure it’s built on time. It could see taxpayers paying substantial sums in interest payments.

And once it’s built the landmark museum could be handed over to a private firm to run to make sure it turns a profit after the Daily Echo revealed the council was paying a £5 subsidy for each visit to the city’s existing maritime Museum in the Wool House.

Tory council leaders will give final approval to the scheme this evening in a financial plan that leaves £5m to be found through fundraising and just under £4m from selling unspecified “assets”.

A controversial sale of prized artwork was halted for the council to look at other funding sources such as wealthy individual donors and a deal with Hampshire County Council to invest money in the city’s 3,500- piece collection in return for art loans.

But leisure bosses admit that “there is no certainty they will yield any substantial amounts”.

Councillor John Hannides, the driving force behind the project, said he was confident the funding would be found so that any borrowing would be short-term.

He said: “This is the final decision that will enable us to proceed with all the necessary permissions in place. It’s a very exciting time. This is the first significant landmark civic project in the city for 30 years. With the funding announcement on the new arts complex our new cultural quarter is now beginning to take shape.”

The project mean the biggest redevelopment in the 78-year history of Southampton’s much-loved Civic Centre when a controversial cruise-liner inspired extension to the west wing of the Grade II listed building gets underway.

The old magistrates’ courts and Central Police Station will be transformed into two permanent exhibitions, entitled Southampton’s Titanic Story and Gateway to the World.

The Southampton-based arm of construction giant Kier has been hired as the builder. Work will start in October.