Kolkata's heritage New Market Clock is set to chime again, thanks to Mudar Patherya

The big clock, situated right at the top of the iconic New Market clock tower, that has seen some 100 years of shopping sprees, festivities, celebrations and is a part of Kolkata's history and heritage, will chime again, thanks to Mudar Patherya and his team.

What went into the restoration of the New Market Clock Tower, we find out from Mudar Patherya

The man, who is on his mission to illuminate all the heritage buildings of Kolkata, initially wanted to illuminate the clock. But Mudar, who is also a clock restorer, also wanted to make the clock work. But nothing could be possible unless the team climbed up the watch from the inside. "The moment we tried to climb up to access the clock from the inside, our legs went into the 100-year-old Burma teak wood structures. Actually, the glass on the roof was broken for years, leading to rainwater coming inside, making the wood wet and fragile over time. So, nobody could reach the clock," he said, talking about the main challenge.

They immediately realised to act on these, they will have to restore it from the inside. "I felt that I must ask for permission for restoration of the entire building, and then, eventually, restore the clock and illuminate it from the inside." He wrote out a proposal, went to a conservation architect, got their costings and went to a funder, Techno Electric and Engineering Company Limited. "And the remarkable thing is that the project, we probably should never have done, we got sucked into that project and we did it. So, I actually got raised the funds and that is the start of the restoration and the turnaround of the New Market Tower. It's a very, very unusual story, but that's how it is," he remarks. 

As Mudar says, the clock is a historic one. "There are only four kinds of clocks like this in the country. Every 15 minutes, it'll chime, and every hour, the gong will strike. It's a fascinating sound which has literally vanished from our lives. And my idea was to reactivate that quaint sound, amid cacophany of the city.

The restoration this time was a comparatively smoother one, devoid of a lt of hurdles. Getting a clearance from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation was easy; it took a little time, though. And raising the money literally took less than a minute. "I'll be very honest, it did not even take me 60 seconds. When I showed the file to my funder, he just closed the file and gave it back to me and said, 'We are on. I don't want to even know how much it will cost'. Conservation architect was no issue either. So, I would say this was smooth sailing.

The project, which started on July 24 this year, was supposed to get completed by Christmas, but the able team completed the same three days before the schedule. Led by The Appropriate Alternative's architects Anjan and Saptarshi Mitra, the mild steel scaffolding was erected after a thorough cleaning, removal of debonded elements, vegetation, fungus and de-rusting of structural elements, along with structural strengthenings, facade treatment and fixing of the clock tower steeple glass.

As the restoration of the tower is done, what remains is the re-illumination of the facade, set to be completed by early January 2026 and the most-awaited activation of the heritage clock, set to be completed by February 2026.

We also asked Mudar about his Calcutta Illumination project, to which he said, "We are today on our 107, 108 projects. That's continuous. We got a clear visibility of another five to seven buildings. So, we are continuing. This time, when we illuminate the New Market Clock Tower, we shall do it in a far more fascinating manner."

He shared that the restoration of Paul Mansions, just across Satyajit Ray's house, is being painted, with the facade getting restored. They are also wanting to work on the restoration of the facade of the Government College of Art and Craft on Chowringhee adjacent to the Indian Museum. "If we get that permission, that would be big," Mudar concludes.

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