The other Gents Company-made giant dial has a dial size of six feet with one side of it facing the Hooghly River while another faces Howrah bus stand.
Iconic Boro Ghori of Howrah Station completed 97 years in 2023 (Photo:SNS)
The twin-faced clocks of Boro Ghori, standing back to back, were installed in the year 1926. It was manufactured by Gents Company, London and was installed at Howrah Station by the famous clock merchant of Kolkata during the colonial period, Late Deb Prosad Roy of M/s Roy Brothers Company, Kolkata. Mounted on a heavy wooden frame since then, one of the clocks of the ‘Boro Ghori’ has a dial of four feet diameter, an 18 inch long hour hand and a 24 inch long minute hand.
The other Gents Company-made giant dial has a dial size of six feet with one side of it facing the Hooghly River while another faces Howrah bus stand. The dials also face platform numbers one to eight of Howrah station on one side and platforms 9 to 15 on the other.
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The clock does not require any winding. According to the Eastern Railway which is responsible for its maintenance, earlier these electro mechanical clocks used to be run by a pulsar device which depends on counting radio pulses and could be remotely controlled from the control office to set the timings.
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Later, its cable started developing problems and it was decided to place the pulsar device in the clocks itself. The ‘Big Ben of Howrah’ is a witness of the transition from the colonial era to the present times.
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