Since Saturday, I have been roaming the streets of Chandigarh. A very different city from anything I've seen here so far. It's also a city with a short but strange history. It serves as the capital for two Indian states, Punjab and Haryana, but the city itself is Union Territory and belongs to neither of the two states. This jumble got started during the Indian partition in 1947, when Lahore, the traditional capital of Punjab became part of Pakistan. Chandigarh was then elected as a new capital, but it needed to be modernized. For rebuilding the city, 6228 families had to be relocated, which not surprisingly led to wide protests. The final decision to "capitalize" Chandigarh took two years. After that several international architects took part in forming the city to its current splendor. The most famous one being a French architect called Le Corbusier, who formed the final city layout. In 1966, a new State was formed for the Hindi speaking minority out of the eastern region of Punjab, Haryana. This is how Chandigarh, located in between Punjab and Haryana, became the capital of both of the states.
The design of the city is very symmetrical. Each Sector has the same size, 800 x 1200 meters. Each unit is self sufficient, having a school, shops, health centers, recreations and places of worship in them. There are only four vehicular entries into each sector (one from the middle of each side). The streets are broad and well taken care of. There's more green park areas in the city than in any other city I've seen. In spite of all the differences to other Indian cities, it still manages to stay very Indian. It's the city with the highest per capita income in India and it was selected the cleanest city in India in year 2010.
(sources: http://chandigarh.gov.in/knowchd_gen_plan.htm,
map image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupVFJZNL6LjNnTZ6emT-9y9vsS79h6Rs1ZUXNxDV3c4NH0PwPNJAXOMqTu8Je_sCn3qcmcYfe57-Cs_J-vCfT_cJK6wfNhDtekIcGJAy68_WphDNwhitUPImglOklqofqZcyJ0RlNkiqf/s320/chandigarh_map_s.jpg)
The design of the city is very symmetrical. Each Sector has the same size, 800 x 1200 meters. Each unit is self sufficient, having a school, shops, health centers, recreations and places of worship in them. There are only four vehicular entries into each sector (one from the middle of each side). The streets are broad and well taken care of. There's more green park areas in the city than in any other city I've seen. In spite of all the differences to other Indian cities, it still manages to stay very Indian. It's the city with the highest per capita income in India and it was selected the cleanest city in India in year 2010.
(sources: http://chandigarh.gov.in/knowchd_gen_plan.htm,
map image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupVFJZNL6LjNnTZ6emT-9y9vsS79h6Rs1ZUXNxDV3c4NH0PwPNJAXOMqTu8Je_sCn3qcmcYfe57-Cs_J-vCfT_cJK6wfNhDtekIcGJAy68_WphDNwhitUPImglOklqofqZcyJ0RlNkiqf/s320/chandigarh_map_s.jpg)
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