Clocks atop 44-yr-old tower no longer tick
The clocks atop the four-sided Clock Tower here, built in 1981 by the first Municipal Corporation (MC), no longer tick.
The clock tower was built 44 years ago by the MC Jalandhar with part on the ground floor then used by the Punjab Tourism Department for running a restaurant. The restaurant was popular as the Clock Tower Restaurant and in 2005, it passed onto the Punjab Press Club on lease. The iconic building, right in front of the General Post Office, still remains an important landmark for residents.
The old office-bearers of the Punjab Press Club say they had got the clocks repaired in 2011 as the MC had refused to provide funds for it. The club had bought the clocks from Golden Watch Company. These had once again started showing the correct time. Soft music also used to play every hour, which was audible to people around the building. But the clocks developed a snag. Now, the clocks do not even have the hands as birds used to sit on these and they eventually fell off.
Notably, the building is part of the Company Bagh that dates back to the British era. The gardens were named after the East India Company. The garden is now also called the Nehru Garden.
“It was the central place of the city then and there were just about three-four popular restaurants in the area including the Greens Restaurant, Skylark, other than the Clock Tower Restaurant in the 1980s. The Kamal Palace had come a little later, but its entrance was then marred by an open, often overflowing drain running from the Partap Bagh side via Milap Chowk till here. Then the Clock Tower restaurant was a popular meeting point for people during afternoons and evenings. The clocks atop it used to be visible from far and were in a good working condition,” recalled former Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia.
Kalia said the first Commissioner of Jalandhar, Rajesh Chhabra had raised this building and also the clocks atop it to make it iconic just like the Ludhiana’s Ghanta Ghar.
The second Mayor of Jalandhar, Suresh Sehgal, said, “It was during my tenure that the building was leased to the Press Club via a resolution moved at a meeting chaired by me. Parkash S Badal was the CM then and Balramji Dass Tandon was the Local Bodies Minister. I can still vividly recall the time when the move happened. I, however, cannot remember if the clocks were working then.”
The possession of the Clock Tower building was handed over to the Punjab Press Club in 2005 during the tenure of Capt Amarinder Singh as the Chief Minister.
Club manager Jatinder Singh said, “It is difficult to get the clocks repaired over and over again as these involve a high maintenance”. To this, Kalia proposed, “The maintenance of the clocks should be handed over to a private company which can put up an advertisement alongside. This is perhaps the most workable model.”
