A 175-year-old French clock tower in the heart of the town is on the verge of dereliction according to a local heritage society that oversaw its maintenance till lockdown-induced financial strain forced it to pull out.

The 40-foot-high clock tower, with its clock face measuring 2 feet across, was built in 1845 by a French contractor. Engravings on the clock’s motor refer to a company named Mariotte, a reference to its French origins. A plaque on the tower says the clock was a gift to the city from Frenchman Pal Joseph Daumain.

Chandernagore became a French colony in 1673 following permission from Ibrahim Khan, then Nawab of Bengal, to establish a trading post on the right bank of the river Hooghly. It remained under the French till the British took it over on March 23, 1757.

According to watchmaker Susanta Datta, 50, the clock requires a daily winding of its 14-foot-long rope mechanism for it to work.

“Since March, that stopped because the heritage society could not afford my Rs 500 salary,” said Datta, who had succeeded his father in winding the clock, thus marking a 75-year-long legacy between them: almost half the age of the clock tower. Datta said it was not clear who maintained the clock before his father took over the job 75 years ago.

“We call this clock tower the Burdwari colloquially. It is important to our heritage,” added Datta.

The two-storey tower is a stone’s throw from the office of the Chandernagore police commissioner. In 1845, the French rulers had made the structure that houses the clock tower along the Strand, on the bank of the Hooghly, for its police unit.

Sources at the Chandernagore Heritage, comprising private citizens, said they had to give up maintenance of the iconic clock as their finances were under stress because of the lockdown.

“Over the past 10 years our pleas to state and central governments for maintenance funds went unheeded. It makes no sense for us to pay someone to wind the clock when the tower may collapse and injure him any moment,” said Chandernagore Heritage secretary Kalyan Chakrabortty.

The clock tower is overgrown with vegetation at various places that has led to seepage.

“Over the years, lack of civil maintenance and water flowing in through cracks on the roof have spoilt the wooden beams that support the ceiling. TThe entire structure is vulnerable,” said a member of Chandernagore Heritage. “Water damaged the clock’s motor too.”

Chakrabortty said the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation was in charge of maintaining the structure. “If they do their part, then we will certainly do ours,” he said.

Commissioner of the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation, Swapan Kundu, said: “I have asked for a thorough report and will then look into the matter,” he said.

Sharmistha Shome, a resident of Burdwari, said she felt bad about the clock tower. “If no one maintains this iconic structure soon then it could be lost forever. We hope that does not happen,” she said.