Heritage expert offers to restore old clocks in Clock Tower

| | DEHRADUN
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Heritage expert offers to restore old clocks in Clock Tower

Saturday, 24 August 2019 | PNS | DEHRADUN

Amidst news of the historic clocks on the six faced Clock Tower to be replaced by modern digital clocks, local heritage expert Lokesh Ohri has offered to restore the old clocks free of cost. However, the municipal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said that the clocks are non-repairable and MCD will continue with the installation of digital clocks.

Ohri said, “In Amritsar there is a conservation project on-going around the premises of Golden Temple in which one of my friends was one of the conservation architects.

 She reached out to friends stating that there is two faced clock on the gateways which was not working for quite some time. Then I reached out to another friend in Kolkata who works on clock restoration. Basically, we acted as a link and they were able to restore the clock.”

He further said, “They said that they are restoring the Clock Tower, but the structure is made of lime plaster. However, during the restoration they removed the lime plaster and coated it with cement plaster.

This goes against material authenticity. People of Uttarakhand do not raise these questions because no one listens.” He questioned where had the old clock disappeared. Whether it is possible to restore it or not is another matter. He also said that MCD should have worked carefully and in detail on the documentation of this heritage site. Clock Tower is one of the most valuable heritage of Dehradun. He added, “We can help if they want we can get in contact with the restorers. It is possible to fabricate the antique parts also. Today technology is beyond our imagination, if some of the parts are not working we can find a solution in order to get around the missing or non-repairable parts.” When asked about the attempts they will be making to restore the clocks, “We are already trying to speak with the municipal commissioner and the mayor so that one more attempt for the restoration can be done.  We are trying to work with the government as MCD and BRIDCUL both are Government institutions. We want to engage constructively and not politically. We are trying to reach out to them and convey that our services are available free, we can help in the restoration of old clocks.”

Meanwhile, municipal commissioner Pandey said, “What is done is done. The installation process will be done as per the schedule.

We have already asked several experts to check it and the firm which is providing these digital clocks has confirmed that these clocks are not repairable.”

One expert on the condition of anonymity alleged that the old parts of the heritage clocks might have been stolen as the clocks have high value in the antique market.

 It will be recalled that the Clock Tower was inaugurated in 1953 by the then Union Railway minister Lal Bahadur Shastri

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