Finally, Ghanta Ghar gets 4 new clocks

Rifat Mohidin

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 11

After remaining defunct for years, the famed Clock Tower, also known as Ghanta Ghar, at the Lal Chowk has finally got new clocks.

The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has installed four new clocks on the tower that have been sponsored by one of the oldest watch shops in the commercial hub ‘Time and Sound’.

“The clock tower never worked properly. The clocks have been sponsored by ‘Time and Sound’ and we have provided them all the logistical support. We hope with the installation of these clocks, Kashmir will see better times ahead. I hope it brings development and peace for the city,” said SMC commissioner Dr Shafqat Khan.

“We will make sure that it functions properly now,” Khan added.

The clock tower in Kashmir has been there since 1970’s.

“It was built by a private industrial unit, Bajaj Company, because that time there was no Clock Tower in Kashmir. Since then it has become a point of attraction for many political rallies because of its location at the historic Lal Chowk,” said Saleem Beg, who heads the he Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) in Kashmir.

“The Clock Tower has remained defunct mostly. It was renovated by the government in 2010,” he added.

Beg said the Ghanta Ghar was inaugurated by then Chief Minister Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in 1979.

The shopkeepers in the City Centre said the government had failed to maintain the clocks on the tower and they had been lying defunct most of the time.

“The government has not shown much interest in maintaining the Clock Tower,” said Parvez Ahmad, a businessman.

Ghanta Ghar has been a political sign in Kashmir. In 1992, the then BJP president, Murli Manohar Joshi, came to hoist the Tricolour atop the tower on Republic Day. Joshi was whisked away when the militants fired rockets some metres away.

Since then, the BSF and the CRPF undertook the hoisting ceremony until 2009. Afterwards, the practice was stopped and the official function of flag-hoisting was shifted to the nearby Bakshi Stadium on Republic Day and Independence Day, which continues to date.