Tower clock at Hazarduari strikes a chord once more
Times of India | 9 March 2025
123 Kolkata: The clock in the Ghari Ghar, or clock tower, at the Nizamat Fort campus in Murshidabad, which also houses the Hazarduari Palace, old Madina Mosque, and the Bacchawali Tope, is ticking and striking again after several decades.
Master clock repairmen, Swapan Dutta and his son Satyajit, who have restored several public clocks and their striking mechanisms in Kolkata, revived the clock that stands in the tower before the Hazarduari Palace or Bara Kothi.
The most famous clock in Murshidabad was silent for decades. Septuagenarians in the town said they could not recollect it functioning even in their childhood. Keen to set it ticking, Kolkata Restorers—a citizens' collective that has funded the restoration of several clocksin Kolkata, including St Andrew's Church, Holy Trinity Church, Magen David Synagogue, Metropolitan Building, and the clock tower at Kidderpore Dock—approached the Duttas to take a look and try to revive the clock manufactured in London.
"The nearly 200-year-old clock had rusted and decayed. We replaced it with a new winding mechanism. Only the hammer and bell could be salvaged. So the sound of the hourly strike is the same as it was over a century ago," said Satyajit.
The clock tower was designed by Sagor Mistri, a Bengali assistant of Colonel McLeod, the architect of the Hazarduari Palace. Four masonry shields are placed on the ground level at four corners. The dial of the clock tower faces eastwards, towards the Bhagirathi river, where sailors and passengers travel on boats. The hands and figures of the clock are visible from the opposite bank of the river.
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