Rajendra Tower ( Hindi: राजेंद्र टावर), locally known as Tower Chowk, is a historic

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

Gaya Gaya may refer to: Geography Czech Republic *Gaya (German and Latin), Kyjov (Hodonín District), a town Guinea * Gaya or Gayah, a town India *Gaya, India, a city in Bihar **Gaya Airport *Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar near Gaya *Gaya district, Bi ...

, Bihar, India. Built sometime between 1910 and 1914 during the British rule by the-then collector George Oldhum, it was renamed as Rajendra Tower after the first Indian president

Dr. Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

in 1981 by the administration of Bihar's Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra. The tower is widely considered to be the symbol of the city.

History

The clock tower was built during the British Raj by George Oldhum, the-then collector of

Gaya district } Gaya district is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. It was officially established on 3 October 1865. The district has a common boundary with the state of Jharkhand to the south. Gaya city is both the district head ...

, which was under Bihar and Orissa Province sometime between 1910 and 1914. The clock tower gradually became symbolic for the city of

. After the end of British rule in 1947, the clock tower eventually became the property of the new Indian state of Bihar. It was renamed Rajendra Tower in 1981 after

, the first President of India by the administration of Jagannath Mishra, the-then Chief Minister of Bihar. According to locals, there were four clocks in the tower on each side and people used to hear the chimes of the clock from meters away whereas pedestrians used to match their accurate time by taking the reference of the clock. Due to the presence of the clock tower, the area gradually became a commercial district and goes by the name of Tower Chowk.

References

{{coord missing, Bihar Clock towers in India Buildings and structures in Bihar Gaya, India Towers completed in the 1910s