SRINAGAR: The Clock Tower, popularly known as Ghanta Ghar, at Srinagar‘s historic Lal Chowk is getting a major makeover under the Srinagar Smart City Project.Locals believe the renovated city square, which was given the famous moniker Red Square in Moscow, will increase the variety of places to hang out in the city. The Lal Chowk business community maintains that the repair work has severely harmed them over the past seven months, but it still believes that all will be worth it in the end. “Renovations have been ongoing for the past seven to eight months. We want to experience better days despite our severe hardship. The Clock Tower is being built using European architecture. According to what we have been told, Paris will soon be seen in Srinagar, according to Suhail Shah, deputy president of the Lal Chowk shopkeepers association.Shah expressed the traders’ expectation that the work would be completed by the middle of August. Athar Amir Khan, the CEO of Smart City and the SMC Commissioner, assured him that a new Lal Chowk will be built after August 15. Another city resident, Sadiya, anticipates that after the Polo View market, city residents will have another place to hang out—the Ghanta Ghar. “Revamping is good since it will provide everyone a change of scenery. Sadiya was positive despite the damaged roads. “Earlier, the Polo View market was renovated and it has become very beautiful and has become a tourist hot spot,” she remarked. The way the roads have been dug up is somewhat inconvenient, but it will be resolved in due course. We’ll be left with a stunning building. Kashmir will be well-known for its leisure activities, she said. Lal Chowk, a historically significant location, is currently being transformed into a space that can also appeal to young people, according to Athar Amir Khan, who is also the Commissioner of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. It is among the most well-known and well-known locations in Srinagar.It is a component of the main enterprise and the centre of commerce. Similar to how we constructed the Polo View market, we created it so that it may serve as a public area. Many locals and visitors arrive and stay till late in the evening. Similar to Dal Lake and Nishat, the goal is to make Lal Chowk as a whole a popular tourist destination, according to Khan. According to him, the Clock Tower is just one element of a larger project that will also renovate the central business district’s Residency Road, Jehangir Chowk, Karan Nagar, and Batamaloo neighbourhoods. “We hope to complete the entire project in the next 40 to 45 days,” Khan continued.
