The Rajabai Tower clock, at the University of Mumbai's Fort campus, which is wound every alternate day, stopped at 3.35 pm on Monday. According to a university official, repair work was started in the evening, and the chimes were being heard by 8.30 pm. The problem arose, the official said, because the clock had not been wound properly.

The chimes of the clock, set up when the tower was constructed in the 1870s, have been reverberating in the campus every 15 minutes for over a century. The clock had been stopped for repairs in the early nineties, when work was carried out by a private party at a cost of around Rs 10 lakh. Maintenance work was later handed over to a private party, Precision Watchmakers. Ever since, it has never stopped ticking.

There have been problems in the past as well, in the sixties, when the clock did notwork for over 15 years due to technical difficulties. The tower, which houses the University Library, was built when a businessman, Premchand Roychand, offered Rs 2 lakh -- his earnings from dealings on the stock market -- for its construction. The tower has been named after his mother. The tower has been declared as a heritage building, and conservation work is on at present in collaboration with the British Council Division of the British Deputy High Commission.