Civic body installs vintage clock after six decades

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has reinstalled a vintage clock after a gap of almost six decades. The clock, named ‘The Ramkrishna Paramhans clock’, was a symbol of protest against British colonialism during freedom struggle, said a statement released by PMC.
The clock has been made functional after efforts of around four years. Joint commissioner of PMC, Dnyaneshwar Molak had found this historic clock in the year 2008.A company at Shastri Hall, Grant Road, Mumbai had manufactured the clock in late 1940s. The company was owned by Kashinath Ganesh Narawane. Maruti Dattatreya Joshi, an electrical engineer and a follower of Ramkrishna’s school of thoughts, had manufactured the clock. The clock bears the picture of Ramkrishna Paramhans, Swami Vivekanand’s guru, and also the name of the manufacturer — Ms New Engineers, Swadeshi Electric Clock Company. The clock works on electricity as well a battery power supply.
"Taking clue from the address written on the clock, I guessed that the clock must have been a part of the then municipality office in Vishrambaug Wada. Using that link, I searched for the senior officials, who used to worked in that office," Molak said.
After getting basic information about the clock, Molak appealed the skilled watchmakers through newspapers to come forward and repair the watch. Nearly 40 experts approached him for repairing. Out of that Pune-based experts Dinesh Deshpande, G L Kulkarni and Vijay Joshi successfully repaired the watch. Now the watch has been fitted at the PMC commissioner's office in main building of PMC at Shivajinagar.