1 week Ago
Less than a year after a 73-year-old clock tower at Kamla Market near the New Delhi Railway Station was restored, the giant clocks on four sides were each showing different times, with only one of them showing the right time, HT found during a spot check on Monday. Traders rued that the gains made in the restoration of the clock tower, under the first phase of a revamp that is currently underway, have already been lost, even as the beautification of the market is moving at a snail’s pace. Lakhwir Singh, vice president of the Kamla Market Welfare Association, said: “The clock started malfunctioning last month.
The clock is running but it is not telling correct time in three directions.” With a layer of bricks on its parapet and cement mix on damaged exteriors, the market set up in 1951 bears some signs of repair work, but the work is ongoing at a slow pace. Further, the paucity of funds has also left traders wondering about the fate of the second phase of the revamp, under which interiors and corridors were to be repaired.
Kamla Market was developed as two concentric horseshoes, on the lines of Connaught Place. Traders say that originally, the market had restaurants, grocery shops, and ice cream parlours, but it failed to attract shoppers. In the 1960s, workers from the Shraddhanand Market, which is located across the road, moved here and started making metal cases, cabinets and metalware.
Between the 1970s and 80s, most shops here started selling desert air coolers. The market was named after Kamala Nehru, the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru. HT reported on June 10, 2024, that the clock tower had been restored, and the clock started ticking again after decades of disrepair.
The tower was repaired, and repainted, and flex boards installed on the structure were also removed under the first phase of the revamp. The market was set up to provide livelihood to Partition refugees who settled in Delhi, and was inaugurated by former president Dr Rajendra Prasad on November 26, 1951. The same year, the clock tower was also installed there.
Traders said that the clock tower was maintained by the market association till 1995 and the death of a local mechanic who used to maintain the clock left the clock non-functional for almost three decades. The restoration was taken up after lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena inspected the market on February 23, 2024, and directed the agencies to take up remedial measures in the area, including the restoration of the clock tower. A senior MCD official, not wishing to be named, said that the work on beautification of the exterior facade of Kamla Market is likely to be completed by May 31.
“The initial deadline was to complete the first phase on exterior facade and outer corridor by December 2024 but due to construction ban during winter pollution season, work was disrupted. The deadline was first extended to March 31 and now, we are hoping to complete it by May 31,” the official said. A second official said that there is an acute shortage of funds, due to which there are doubts over the second phase of work inside the market complex.
During a spot check on the largest cooler market on Monday, HT found that the market faces several challenges, as it was suffering from large cracks in multiple parts, heavy encroachment, poor sanitation in public toilets and broken roads..
