Toll student to ring again after 2 decades

Anyone who has frequented the Mahatma Phule Mandai in the early 90s would remember the iconic Toll Student,a clock-tower that had the statue of a boy in school uniform coming out of an automatic door and ringing a temple-like bell every hour.

The clock tower has statue of a boy emerging from a door to ring bell every hour

Anyone who has frequented the Mahatma Phule Mandai in the early 90s would remember the iconic Toll Student,a clock-tower that had the statue of a boy in school uniform coming out of an automatic door and ringing a temple-like bell every hour. The Toll Student,which unfortunately worked only for two years,will now be re-installed at Mandai by next week. The statue-clock was shut down due to improper maintenance and non-availability of imported parts.

The work on the clock tower has been going on for the last three months and the staute is getting final touches at Threadwell,Parvati Industrial Estate.

Pune Corporation fireman Ambrish Battul who is working on fittings and technicalities of the clock,said,We have done a few modifications in design. Earlier,the statue was 1.5-ft-tall but now the height of the statue is 3.5 ft. While the earlier door was plywood one,we have a fibre door now.

Built in 1990, the Toll Student clock tower was the idea of Satish Desai,a corporator during those days. There is a statue in Brisbane,London,built on the similar lines. I was inspired by it, said Desai. Now a social worker,Desai added that although he approached many corporators to get the clock restarted,no one showed any interest. Finally,he got the nod from the current corporator and MLA Madhuri Misal,he said.

The clock was built in memory of students of Bharat English School,who had died when the bus they were travelling in collided with train. The clock was inaugurated by the late Marathi actor Dada Kondke.

Reminiscing the days,Kailash Chavan,who has been vending vegetables at Mahatma Phule Mandai for decades,said,Families used to visit Mandai especially to see the clock. Young schoolstudents would gather there around 12 0clock to see the statue giving 12 tolls.

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The parts we have used now are from Pune,so there will not be any problem in future maintenance. The new statue will have a battery backup. We will also be able to operate it through remote control. We have put additional speakers so that the sound of the bell will be heard up to one kilometre, said Battul.

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Toll student to ring again after 2 decades

Anyone who has frequented the Mahatma Phule Mandai in the early 90s would remember the iconic Toll Student,a clock-tower that had the statue of a boy in school uniform coming out of an automatic door and ringing a temple-like bell every hour.

Toll student to ring again after 2 decades

Anyone who has frequented the Mahatma Phule Mandai in the early 90s would remember the iconic Toll Student,a clock-tower that had the statue of a boy in school uniform coming out of an automatic door and ringing a temple-like bell every hour.