Clock tower - arch. Features
Urban morphology •
In 2006, the park housing the tower was chosen for renovation by the same agency. Carried out for ₹10 million (US$130,000), the park’s size was reduced to widen the roads. In addition, the tower was renovated, the park was landscaped with lawns and hedges, and a waterfall was installed. The renovation was completed in 2005, and the park was inaugurated by then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy in 2006. A martyr’s memorial was also established inside the park in memory of the first police firing in 1969 during a separate Telangana agitation. Within a year after this, two of the tower’s four clocks experienced technical problems and stopped working.
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The tower was declared a heritage structure in the twin cities of Hyderabad - Secunderabad. It was as a result of the efforts put by the civic agency at sites like this tower that the proposal to seek UNESCO Heritage status for Hyderabad was revived.
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In 2006, the 200-year celebrations of the formation of Secunderabad were organized by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The clock tower was chosen as the subject of the logo, which was designed by a local firm. The outline of the Clock Tower was first conceived by the students of a city architectural college. A short cinema film of 9 minutes, 30 seconds by director Mani Shankar was released as a part of this celebration. The film, which relates the history of the city, features the clock tower in it.
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The park housing the tower also served as a venue for promoting various citizen-centric events such as a children’s film festival, awareness programs among others.
Fig: Secunderabad Clock Tower
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