South End Circle in Bangalore South has got a new land mark. The clock tower officially called Ambara Chumbana stands tall at 65 feet and will be one of the tallest structures apart from being a prominent symbol in the city.
The huge structure was initiated by N R Ramesh, Corporator of Yediyur constituency, and it cost the BBMP a whopping Rs 900,000. The structure has been completely done with green granite that was specially picked from Hassan. Ramesh further explained about the clock tower that came about at the traffic intersection. “It is a triangular area approximately 2,030 sq feet which was mostly used as public urinals. This area being the second highest crowded after K R road, vehicles stop for atleast five minutes at each signal. People took advantage of this and used this area to relieve themselves. When we tried to educate the public, it all went in vain. Sonia Narang, the Deputy Commissioner of Police had a discussion and insisted that we need to do something about this. So I spent around `2 lakh and built a fence. Even then, the menace did not stop. To top it all, we had drunkards who would get drunk and throw bottles here. We could not even convert it into a park and that is how the clock tower came into being,” explained Ramesh, who wishes to make the clock tower in Bangalore bigger and better than the one in Sweden.
“I was mesmerised by the clock tower when I visited Sweden and then the interest developed in setting up a similar one in Bangalore. I discussed this matter with the Home Minister, R Ashok and BJP leader, Ananth Kumar. It took almost one year to complete the entire structure with a neat garden. The tower in Sweden has two pillars and one clock. I didn’t want to copy the same. So, I designed a 3 pillar structure with three clocks and a dial is about 8.2 feet wide. The three dials are in Roman, Kannada and English inscription,” he said.
The highlight of this clock tower is that the dial will see 7 colours for 7 days. “We have gone by astrology, where we have a particular colour for each day that has been done through a micro controller based technology. The clock tower at dusk is pleasant to watch especially when the lights are illuminated. The best part is that everything will run on solar energy,” he said.
Another attraction is the 20 second conch sound that the clock will make every hour which can be heard at a 3.5 km radius. “This sound was especially done to revive our heritage and follow our traditional customs. I am planning to add a musical sound which will only play Carnatic instrumental music between 6 pm and 10 pm everyday,” he added.
The money spent on the clock tower came from the funds allotted to the area. “I have never burdened the BBMP to provide funds for this clock. We have spent from the money allocated to us and I am happy that the city can now boast about the ‘tallest clock’ structure. The importance of this image is that it will also be noticed as and when the metro comes up completely,” he said.