Chandigarh

  ?Chandigarh
India
Nickname: City Beautiful
The Open Hand Monument
The Open Hand Monument
Coordinates:
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
Area
• Elevation		 114 km² (44 sq mi)
• 350 m (1,148 ft)
Capital Chandigarh
Largest city Chandigarh
District(s) 1
Population
• Density		 900,635[1] (29)
• 7,900 /km² (20,461 /sq mi)
Language(s) Hindi, Punjabi and English
Established 1953
Codes
• Telephone
• +172
ISO abbreviation IN-CH
Website: chandigarh.nic.in/
The city of Chandigarh comprises all of the union territory's area.
Seal of Chandigarh
Seal of Chandigarh

Chandigarh,{{{2}}} (Hindi: चंडीगढ़), (Punjabi: ਚੰਡੀਗੜ੍ਹ) also called The City Beautiful, is a city in India that serves as the capital of two states, Punjab and Haryana, and is a union territory of India. The name translates from Hindi to English as "the fort of Chandi", Chandi being a Hindu Goddess.

Known internationally for its architecture and urban planning, Chandigarh is home to numerous architectural projects of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Matthew Nowicki, and Albert Mayer. The city boasts a high standard of living with the highest per capita income in the country and tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories with a Human Development Index of 0.987.[2]

Contents

History

After the partition of British India into the two nations of India and Pakistan in 1947, the region of Punjab was also split between India and Pakistan. The Indian state of Punjab required a new capital city to replace Lahore, which became part of Pakistan during the partition. After several plans to make additions to existing cities were found to be infeasible for various reasons, the decision to construct a new and planned city was undertaken. The city derives its name from Chandi Mandir, a temple of goddess Chandi, located in nearby Panchkula District of Haryana. The word Chandigarh literally means "the fort of Chandi".

Of all the new town schemes in independent India, the Chandigarh project quickly assumed prime significance, because of the city's strategic location as well as Jawaharlal Nehru's, the first Prime Minister of independent India personal interest in it. Commissioned by Nehru to reflect the new nation's modern, progressive outlook, Nehru famously proclaimed Chandigarh to be "unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future." Several buildings and layouts in Chandigarh were designed by the Swiss born French architect and urban planner,Le Corbusier, in the 1950s. Le Corbusier was in fact the second architect of the city, after the initial master plan was prepared by the United States American architect-planner Albert Mayer who was working with the Poland-born architect Matthew Nowicki. It was only after Nowicki's untimely death in 1950 that Le Corbusier was pulled into the project.

On 1 November,1966, the newly-formed Indian state of Haryana was carved out of the eastern portion of the Punjab, in order to create Haryana as a majority Hindi speaking state, while the western portion of Punjab retained a mostly Punjabi language-speaking majority and remained as the current day Punjab. However, the city of Chandigarh was on the border, and was thus created into a union territory to serve as capital of both these states. Chandigarh was due to be transferred to Punjab in 1986, in accordance with an agreement signed in August 1985 by Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India at that time, with Sant Harchand Singh Longowal of the Akali Dal. This was to be accompanied by the creation of a new capital for Haryana, but the transfer has been delayed pending an agreement on which some villages in southern districts of Punjab, should be transferred to Haryana in exchange and Punjabi speaking parts of Haryana such as Jind,Sirsa,Fatehabad,Ambala etc. and Ganganagar of Rajasthan should be transferred to Punjab.

On 15 July 2007,Chandigarh became the first Indian city to go smoke-free. Smoking at public places has been strictly prohibited and considered as a punishable act by Chandigarh Administration. That was followed up by a complete ban on polythene bags with effect from 2 October 2008, the birthday of the Father of the Nation.

Geography

Sukhna Lake

Chandigarh is located near the foothills of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas in Northwest India. It covers an area of approximately 44 sq mi or 114 km². and shares its borders with the states of Haryana in the south and Punjab in the north. The exact cartographic co-ordinates of Chandigarh are .[3] It has an average elevation of 321 metres (1053 feet).

The surrounding districts are of Mohali, Patiala and Ropar in Punjab and Panchkula and Ambala in Haryana. The boundary of the state of Himachal Pradesh are not too far from its north. Chandigarh has a sub-tropical continental monsoon climate characterized by a seasonal rhythm: hot summers, slightly cold winters, unreliable rainfall and great variation in temperature (-1 °C to 41.2 °C). In winter, frost sometimes occurs during December and January. The average annual rainfall is 1110.7 mm. The city also receives occasional winter rains from the west.

Average temperature

for Chandigarh
J F M A M J J A S O N D
 
 
33
 
20
6
 
 
39
 
23
8
 
 
30
 
28
13
 
 
9
 
35
19
 
 
28
 
38
23
 
 
145
 
39
25
 
 
280
 
34
24
 
 
308
 
33
23
 
 
133
 
33
22
 
 
22
 
32
17
 
 
9
 
27
11
 
 
22
 
22
7
temperatures in °C
precipitation totals in mm
source: World Weather Information Service

Architecture and urban planning

Le Corbusier's plan of modern Chandigarh Taking over from Albert Mayer,Le Corbusier produced a plan for Chandigarh that conformed to the modern city planning principles of Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne CIAM, in terms of division of urban functions, an anthropomorphic plan form, and a hierarchy of road and pedestrian networks. This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual maps on the drawing board together with notes and sketches had to be translated into brick and mortar. Le Corbusier retained many of the seminal ideas of Mayer and Nowicki, like the basic framework of the master plan and its components: The Capitol, City Center, besides the University, Industrial area, and linear parkland. Even the neighborhood unit was retained as the basic module of planning. However, the curving outline of Mayer and Nowicki was reorganized into a mesh of rectangles, and the buildings were characterized by an "honesty of materials". Exposed brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced unfinished concrete surfaces, in geometrical structures. This became the architectural form characteristic of Chandigarh, set amidst landscaped gardens and parks.

The initial plan had two phases: the first for a population of 150,000 and the second taking the total population to 500,000. Le Corbusier divided the city into units called "sectors", each representing a theoretically self-sufficient entity with space for living, working and leisure. The sectors were linked to each other by a road and path network developed along the line of the 7 Vs, or a hierarchy of seven types of circulation patterns. At the highest point in this network was the V1, the highways connecting the city to others, and at the lowest were the V7s, the streets leading to individual houses. Later a V8 was added: cycle and pedestrian paths. The Palace Assembly, designed by Le Corbusier The city plan is laid down in a grid pattern. The whole city has been divided into rectangular patterns, forming identical looking sectors, each sector measures 800 m x 1200 m. The sectors were to act as self-sufficient neighbourhoods, each with its own market, places of worship, schools and colleges - all within 10 minutes walking distance from within the sector. The original two phases of the plan delineated sectors from 1 to 47, with the exception of 13 (Number 13 is considered unlucky). The Assembly, the secretariat and the high court, all located in Sector - 1 are the three monumental buildings designed by Le Corbusier in which he showcased his architectural genius to the maximum. The city was to be surrounded by a 16 kilometer wide greenbelt that was to ensure that no development could take place in the immediate vicinity of the town, thus checking suburbs and urban sprawl; hence is famous for its greenness too.

While leaving the bulk of the city's architecture to other members of his team, Le Corbusier took responsibility for the overall master plan of the city, and the design of some of the major public buildings including the High Court, Assembly, Secretariat, the Museum and Art Gallery, School of Art and the Lake Club. Le Corbusier's most prominent building, the Court House, consists of the High court, which is literally higher than the other, eight lower courts. Most of the other housing was done by Le Corbusier's cousin Pierre Jeanneret,the English husband and wife team of Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, along with a team of nine Indian architects. The city in its final form, while not resembling his previous city projects like the Ville Contemporaine or the Ville Radieuse, was an important and iconic landmark in the history of town planning. It continues to be an object of interest for architects, planners, historians and social scientists. Chandigarh has two satellite cities:Panchkula and Mohali. Sometimes, the triangle of these three cities is collectively called the Chandigarh Tricity.

Chandigarh UT Administration

The Open Hand, the official logo of Chandigarh

Chandigarh Administration is under the control of the Administrator who is appointed under the provisions of Art 239 of the Constitution. The administrative control of Chandigarh is under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Governor of Punjab is the Administrator of Chandigarh. The Adviser to the Administrator, a very senior officer belonging to one of the All India Services, is second in command after the Administrator. He generally belongs to the AGMU cadre of the Indian Administrative Service.

The above three officers are from AGMU cadre or Punjab cadre or Haryana cadre of the All India Services.

Demographics

Hindu Temple on the outskirts of the city

As of 2001 India census,[4] Chandigarh had a population of 900,635, making for a density of about 7900 persons per square kilometre. Males constitute 56% of the population and females 44%. The sex ratio is 777 females for every 1,000 males – which is the lowest in the country. Chandigarh has an average literacy rate of 81.9%, higher than the national average of 64.8%; with male literacy of 86.1% and female literacy of 76.5%. About 12% of the population is under 6 years of age. The main religions in Chandigarh are Hinduism (78.6%), Sikhism (16.1%), Islam (3.9%), and Christianity (0.8%).[5] Hindi and Punjabi are the main languages spoken in Chandigarh, although these days English has also gained some popularity. People speaking Tamil form the third biggest linguistic group in Chandigarh. (Census of India 1991). A small number of people also speak Urdu. However, the most common language for informal communication, especially among the youth of the city is Hindi.

A significant percentage of the population of Chandigarh consists of people who had moved here from the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana to fill up the large number of vacancies in various government departments that were established in Chandigarh.

Economy

The government is a major employer in Chandigarh with three governments having their base here. A significant percentage of Chandigarh’s population therefore consists of people who are either working for one of these governments or have retired from government service. For this reason, Chandigarh is often called a “Pensioner's Paradise”. There are about 15 medium to large industrial including two in the Public sector. In addition Chandigarh has over 2500 units are registered under small scale sector. The important industries are paper manufacturing, basic metals and alloys and machinery. Other industries are relating to food products, sanitary ware, auto parts, machine tools, pharmaceuticals and electrical appliances. Yet, with a Per Capita Income of Rs. 99,262, Chandigarh is the richest city in India.[6] Chandigarh's gross state domestic product for 2004 is estimated at $2.2 billion in current prices.

Chandigarh has a well developed market and banking infrastructure. Nearly all the major banks in the country have registered their presence in Chandigarh. Most banks with a pan India presence have their zonal/regional offices present in Chandigarh. The Bank Square in Sector 17 in Chandigarh has a large presence of such offices all in one section of the commercial sector.

Three major trade promotion organizations have their offices in Chandigarh. These are: Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, (FICCI) the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which has its regional headquarters at Sector 31, Chandigarh.

IT Park in Chandigarh

The defence forces have a significant presence in Chandigarh, apart from the Indian Airforce base in Sector 31 and the nearby Cantonment in Chandimandir, the city is the base for sourcing supplies for the Leh Ladhak and Siachen region of defence operations.

Chandigarh IT Park (also Chandigarh Technology Park) is the city's attempt to break into the IT world. Chandigarh's infrastructure, proximity to Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, and the IT talent pool attracts IT businesses looking for office space in the area. Major Indian firms and multinational corporations including Second Foundation (India) Pvt Ltd. (Now Fidelity Information Services), S J Edutech P Limited, FCS Software Solutions Ltd., Quark, Infosys, Dell, Webart Softech have offices in the city and it's suburbs. According to a recent Global Services Survey conducted by Cyber Media, Chandigarh is ranked 9th in the top 50 cities identified globally as ‘emerging outsourcing and IT services destinations.’[7]

Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park (RGCTP), was conceived in 2001 by Chandigarh administration this was to promote and provide planned facilities to the IT companies and young entrepreneurs. Located in the foothills of Shivaliks, close to Sukhna lake.[8] The Department of Information Technology Chandigarh is this official department under Chandigarh administration dealing with IT policies and promotion of IT park.[9]

Education

Main article: List of educational institutions in Chandigarh
Gandhi Bhavan built by Pierre Jeanneret for Panjab University

Chandigarh is known for its quality school education. The schools are affiliated to different types of school curricula. The colleges in Chandigarh include GGDSD College (Sector 32), DAV College (Sector 10), MCM DAV College (Sector 36), Government College for Girls (Sector 11 and 42), Government College for Men (Sector 11), Home Science College for Girls (Sector 10) , Guru Gobind Singh College (Sector 26),Government Teacher Training College (Chandigarh, India) and Government Teacher Training College. There are model schools set up by the government in various sectors, originally aimed to cater the needs of each sector. It is a major study hub for students all over Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Uttaranchal, and also for the students from South-East Asia.

Chandigarh also houses many prominent institutes of higher learning, such as:

Also located in neighboring Mohali, Chandigarh College of Education for Women (CCEW),SASIITR, Chandigarh College of Pharmacy (CCP) and Chandigarh College of Hotel Management and Catering Technology (CCHM).The Indian Institute of Science Education Research (IISER) Mohali has been established as an autonomous academic institution in 2007 by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India, New Delhi, to carry out research in frontier areas of science and provide quality science education at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) located in nearby Mohali is the first national level institute in pharmaceutical sciences with a proclaimed objective of becoming a center of excellence for advanced studies and research in pharmaceutical sciences. Chandigarh's satellite town of Mohali is home for Center for Development of Advanced Computing's northmost branch C-DAC Mohali that is engaged in research on state-of-the-art topics including Telemedicine.

Some of the notable schools in Chandigarh are:

Transport

Punbus connects the city to other parts of Punjab

Chandigarh has the largest number of vehicles per capita.[10] Wide, well maintained roads and ample parking space all over the city, make it convenient to use private vehicles for local transport.

Public buses run by the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU), an undertaking of the Chandigarh Administration, provide local transport as well as inter-state transport services.[11]

The Chandigarh Traffic Police oversees the implementation of the traffic rules, and is widely credited for a fairly orderly traffic system. The Traffic Park in Sector 23 introduces children, rickshaw-pullers and new drivers to traffic safety.[12]

Rickshaws are common for traveling short distances, especially by school-going children, housewives and the elderly. Auto-rickshaws are limited, and most often ply to and from the ISBT. Most heavy traffic roads now have rickshaw lanes, which the rickshaw-pullers must adhere to compulsorily.

The city also boasts of a well established network of modern radio cabs using cars like Tata Indigo, Fiat Siena and Maruti Esteem.

Chandigarh is well connected by road. The two main National Highways (NH) connecting Chandigarh with the rest of the country are: NH 22 (Ambala - Kalka - Shimla - Kinnaur) and NH 21 (Chandigarh - Leh). Chandigarh has two Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT), one for the North, East and South located in Sector 17, which has regular bus services to most major cites in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, as well as the national capital Delhi, which is about 240 km away. And a second in Sector 43 for the Western section, mainly Punjab, some parts of Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir.

Chandigarh has a railway station located about 10 km. away from the ISBT. Regular train connections are available to the national capital New Delhi and to some other junctions like Kalka, Ambala, Amritsar, Bhiwani,Lucknow, Patna,Howrah, Mumbai, Chennai, Trivandrum and Sri Ganganagar.

Chandigarh also has a domestic airport located nearly 12 kilometers from the ISBT. Its name is Chandigarh Airport. Jet Airways, JetLite,Air India, and Kingfisher Airlines operate regular flights from Chandigarh to New Delhi and Mumbai. The airport is under process of becoming an international airport and is negotiating with several airlines including SilkAir and Kingfisher for international flights to Singapore and Bangkok, among other South East Asian countries [13]

In the near future, the city will also see a Metro Rail[14], and an international airport. They are both approved by the governments, and are now at the design step to finalize the project design.

Sporting venues

Football field in the city

Gardens

The winning flower from Rose Fest 2006

Media

Newspapers

English

A radio tower, modeled on the Eiffel Tower in Paris
  1. The Tribune - Punjab's oldest newspaper [Circulated in the Chandigarh, Panchkula, Mohali, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Delhi, Himachal regions]
  2. The Indian Express - National daily published from Chandigarh.
  3. Hindustan Times - National daily published from Chandigarh.
  4. The Times of India - National Daily.(Sub-Circulatories - The Times Of Chandigarh), The Economic Times , The Business Times]
  5. The Pioneer- National daily published from Chandigarh.
  6. Business Line- Business daily newspaper.
  7. The Hindu- National daily.
  8. The Economic Times - Business daily newspaper.

Hindi

  1. Dainik Bhaskar - National Hindi daily published from Chandigarh.
  2. Amar Ujala - National Hindi daily published from Chandigarh.
  3. Dainik Tribune - Sister concern of The Tribune and gets published from Chandigarh
  4. Punjab Kesari - National Hindi Daily
  5. Hindustan - National Hindi daily published from Chandigarh.

Punjabi

  1. Punjabi Tribune - Sister concern of The Tribune.
  2. Desh Sewak - Punjab newspaper associated with political party CPI(M).
  3. Rozana Spokesman - Punjabi newspaper.New entrant.
  4. Jagbani - Punjabi edition of Punjab Kesari
  5. Apna Punjab - a popular Punjabi newspaper also published in the USA (first started from New York)

Notable residents

Major Academic Works

References

  1. ↑ Indian Census
  2. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chandigarhs_per_capita_income_highest_in_India/articleshow/3487128.cms Chandigarh's per capita income highest in India]
  3. ↑ Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Chandigarh
  4. ↑ "Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
  5. ↑ Indian Census
  6. ↑ Chandigarh's the richest of 'em all
  7. ↑ The Hindu Business Line
  8. ↑ Department of Information Technology An Official Website of Department of IT
  9. ↑ Department of IT, Chandigarh
  10. ↑ http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun132006/national181232006612.asp
  11. ↑ CITCO
  12. ↑ Chandigarh traffic police, promoting road safety, traffic safety, India road signs & rules, safe responsible driving, first aid India
  13. ↑ City Beautiful to get its first international flight in August - ExpressIndia.Com
  14. ↑ Deccan Herald - Metro comes to Chandigarh

External links


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