The master clock that is no longer there at the vice-chairman?s office. A Telegraph picture

Darjeeling, May 31: The turret clock at Capitol Hall can tick back to life once again provided the master clock controlling it and a series of other clocks in town is tracked down.

The civic authorities apparently can no longer find the clock that was kept at the vice-chairman?s office.

No one seems to have any inkling where it can be. ?We just cannot find it. It has been lost,? said B.B. Dewan, the chairman of the Darjeeling municipality.

The Telegraph has learnt from a source that the master clock ?vanished? from the vice-chairman?s office not very long ago.

Though many believe that it was destroyed during the fire that had engulfed the municipality office in 1996, The Telegraph has in its possession photographs to show that the master clock had survived the fire without any major damage (see picture). The clock was probably ?stolen? a few years after the fire.

A senior official of the civic body said he had sent a few people to someone to bring back the master clock, which is a public property. But the person concerned reportedly maintained that he did not have it. ?What can we do if they say they do not have it with them?? the official said.

Shantanu Biswas, the man who had repaired the clock in 1986, maintained that if the master clock is found, he will need only a couple of batteries to repair it and bring it back to a perfect working condition. ?The batteries will cost as little as Rs 5,000,? Biswas said.

Retrieving the master clock and bringing it back to the civic body?s office will not only help revive the Capitol clock, but will also ensure that a series of other clocks in town also come to life.

?The master clock was so accurate that it would lose only around 4 seconds in a week. It also controlled the timers at the general post office, State Bank of India, the telephone office and also the one at the entrance of the civic body office,? said Biswas.

Shaheesh Prasad, an architect who is involved in resorting heritage buildings in town, said with such clocks fetching high prices among item collectors, Darjeeling might have lost the master clock for good.

?While browsing through the Internet we found that the prices of similar clocks are very high and are in high demand among collectors,? Prasad said.

For those who would love to hear the gong of the tower again, every thing is not lost yet. ?We can still make an electronic model that functions the way the master clock did to make the historic clock functional again,? said Biswas.

Even then, will anyone, who possesses the master clock, give it back to the people of Darjeeling, without revealing his identity?

(Concluded)