Heritage alarm rings: Mumbai's vintage clocks run out of time

Time is running out for the city’s vintage clocks, but no one seems to notice. Such is the apathy towards the clocks that the civic body does not even know about the existence of some.

This squandering of the city’s heritage has been highlighted in an RTI query filed by social activist Aziz Amreliwala, who was earlier instrumental in getting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to repair the Crawford Market heritage clock tower.

Amreliwala has sought details from the corporation on repairs carried out on three South Mumbai clocks at Bora Bazaar, Birla Krida Kendra, and Crawford Market.

Let alone answer his query, civic departments to whom the query was forwarded could not even find records of the first two clocks.

“These clocks have been forgotten despite them being an important part of the city’s history,” said Amreliwala, adding the Bora Bazaar clock stopped ticking in 1988, while the floral clock at Birla Krida Kendra has stood still for three decades.

Built by Parsis during the Raj, the Bora Bazaar clock marked time to feed horses. “Beneath the clock was a well, where the horses were fed at fixed times,” Amreliwala said. The Birla clock was among the first structures near Girgaon Chowpatty. “Apart from it being a tourist attraction, beach visitors used it to keep track of time.”

He said lack of awareness among civic officials, including those reporting to the heritage committee, has contributed to the sorry state of affairs. In this regard, the Crawford Market clock has been more fortunate. Set up in 1871, it ticked on for 103 years before winding down in 2004. Following Amreliwala’s correspondence, the civic body restored the clock in 2007, but it ran out of luck the very next year, when the dial on one of its four faces came unstuck and fell down during heavy August rains.

Amreliwala says that though the BMC has a new dial, it has not found time to carry out minor structural repairs recommended by a vintage clock expert, Venkatesh Rao.

Rao said: “We have decided to wait until restoration work on the heritage portion of the market is completed.” He said it is sad the city does not care for its historic clocks.