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Hyderabad: The historic clock towers in the major Indian city of Hyderabad, which had fallen prey to the vagaries of weather and time, are getting a new lease of life.
With some more than a century old, the towers are regarded as sentinels of the city’s history.
As part of the state government’s drive to rehabilitate heritage structures in the city, and other parts of Telangana, experts have been restoring the structures of the towers — as well as their old clocks.
Principal Secretary for municipal administration and urban development in the state government, Arvind Kumar, who was personally going around and supervising the restoration work said, “Of the 12 clock towers that dot the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, four have already become functional”.
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The most famous of them are the clocks of the more than 400-year-old Charminar, the icon of Hyderabad city.
The other clock towers include Moazzam Jahi Market, Mahbub Chowk, Shahalibanda, Khilwat, Fateh Maidan, Sultan Bazar, Abids, and Railway Station, Kachiguda.
Three similar historic structures, located in Secunderabad, are the famous Secunderabad Clock Tower, Monda Market and James Street Towers.
“The work taken up includes not only technical restoration of the antique clocks but also repairing and beautification of the structures, providing security and fencing and also lighting at night”, said Kumar who visited some of the restored clock towers of Mahbub Chowk, Moazzam Jahi Market and Secunderabad.
The oldest among them is the Secunderabad Clock Tower, built in 1860.
While the Charminar tower was built in 1591, during the Qutub Shahi era, the clocks on its four sides were installed only in 1889 during the Asif Jahi period.
The “youngest” of the clocks was installed at Moazzam Jahi Market in 1935.
The clock tower at Shahalibanda was part of the famous Devdhi Raja Roy, which has now vanished — only its entrance still stands desolately.
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The clocks on the two sides of the tower have been dysfunctional for years and time for them has long been at a standstill.
But authorities have decided to award contracts for their restoration.
At Sultan Bazar, Arvinda Kumar directed the officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation to remove the encroachments around the clock tower and beautify its surroundings.
Most of these clock towers have heavy and sophisticated machines inside their structure, which require special expertise to restore and maintain them.
At the Moazzam Jahi Market, a key intersection of the city, one is now thrown back in time as the area echoes with the sound of the restored clock every hour.
Not only has the clock tower been repaired, the entire historic building of Moazzam Jahi Market has been rehabilitated, turning what had become an eyesore into an attraction.
As part of the restoration, authorities have permanently solved the problem of rainwater flooding the market.
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On the orders of Kumar, GHMC officials have prepared a detailed report on the structural stability and technical conditions of the clocks and further steps required to preserve them.
One of the challenges identified was to prevent pigeons from building nests inside the clock towers, and to stop them from damaging the hands of the old clocks.
A proposal was also sent to the state government to create a separate wing of the Telangana Reserve Police Force to provide security and protection to the heritage buildings and monuments.
Meanwhile as part of the ambitious drive to restore the magnificence of the historic monuments in the city officials were also implementing a plan to illuminate the four minarets of Charminar so the monument will glitter and be visible from far off.
As part of the plan four octagonal towers will come up on four sides of Charminar to illuminate the tower with LED lights at three levels.
