The place have Vizag’s clock towers gone?

A view of the clock tower constructed by the Better Visakhapatnam Municipal Company (GVMC) in European model, as a part of junctions improvement programme at Jagadamba Junction in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday on July, 09 2024. It has change into a favourite spot for photographers and You Tubers because of it’s colourfull illumination.
| Photograph Credit score: DEEPAK KR

Many heritage buildings in Visakhapatnam, significantly these within the Outdated City, had clock towers to point the time of the day. These born within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies would bear in mind wanting on the clock towers on the King George Hospital (KGH) and the Kurupam Market constructing whereas passing by them of their childhood. There’s a clock tower on the Maharajah Vikrama Deo School of Science and Know-how at Andhra College.

This clock was seen solely to these contained in the campus, as different buildings and timber on the college campus obtained in the best way for folks to see from the skin.

The muse stone for the development of the College School of Science and Know-how at Andhra College campus, in Visakhapatnam was laid by the then Governor of Madras and Chancellor of Andhra College, Lt. Col. The Rt. Honourable Sir George Frederick Stanley, on December 1, 1931. Building was accomplished in two years, and the buildings had been inaugurated by the identical governor on December 8, 1933.

The inauguration plaque, nevertheless, bears the school’s title: Jeypore Vikrama Deo School of Science and Know-how. After the loss of life of the then-pro-chancellor of the College, Maharajah Sri Ramachandra Deo, who had no direct successor, on February 20, 1931, Vikrama Deo Verma took over the Jeypore Zamindary in June 1931.

Subsequently, the then Vice-Chancellor Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, together with Alladi Krishna Swamy, the then Advocate Normal of Madras, mediated by means of O. Pulla Reddy, ICS, and persuaded Vikrama Deo Verma to donate liberally to the college and the latter readily consented.

“Vikrama Deo Verma executed a bond agreeing to pay in direction of the recurring expenditure of the College School of Science and Know-how, an annual contribution of ₹50,000 for the tutorial yr 1933-34, ₹75,000 for 1934-35 and ₹1,00,000 from the following tutorial years until such time, when he or his heirs pay up a complete sum of ₹15,00,000. The college had determined to rename the school as Jeypore Vikrama Deo (JVD) School of Science and Know-how in recognition of his beneficiant endowment to the college,” says V. Edward Paul, a historical past chronicler and INTACH member.

“The clock tower on the imposing school constructing appears to have been added after the opening of the constructing. In 1936, Dr. C.R. Reddy, the Vice-Chancellor, had described the clock tower because the crown of the college buildings of Andhra College. He additionally known as it a ‘swadeshi crown’, amongst all different imported clocks. The clock was manufactured below the steering and supervision of Dr. H. Parameswaran, Division of Physics, Presidency School of Madras, at his laboratory,” he says.

“The clock tower at JVD School of Science and Know-how in Andhra College labored until 2014. It was broken and stopped working after the Hudhud cyclone struck Visakhapatnam on October 12, 2014. Getting the spare elements and mechanics to restore such an vintage clock is troublesome. Nonetheless, the heritage worth of the clock can’t be outlined in financial phrases,” says Mr. Edward Paul.

Whereas the KGH Clock Tower continues to show the time, the Kurupam Market constructing was razed to the bottom some years in the past. Clock towers not appear to attract the general public’s consideration so far as understanding the time is worried, however they do look in awe on the magnificent clock towers, which add to the splendour of the buildings.

Coming to the current, the district administration constructed a brand new clock tower on the busy Jagadamba Junction. Although the development is new, the architects have given it a classic look, and it has change into a brand new attraction for vacationers and guests to town. The tower, with its vibrant lighting, will be seen in all its grandeur after darkish.