Seven engrossing facts about the city beautiful, Chandigarh

Chandigarh is unlike most of the Indian cities; visitors fall in love often with the traffic-free areas, pedestrian-friendly roads, lush green areas and great food and leisure options. Read on to know more about the city beautiful, Chandigarh.

1. The first planned city of modern India: Named after goddess Chandi, the warrior form of goddess Parvati, Chandigarh was designed and bought to life by French architect, Le Corbusier. Chandigarh was the dream city of India’s first Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and spread over an area of 114 square meters.
2. Why it is called ‘City Beautiful’: Chandigarh has the best-planned infrastructure, lush green areas, lakes, walkways and disciplined residents. This makes it top the list of Indian cities on the human development index. Moreover, its nightlife and proximity to mountains make it indeed a beautiful city!
3. The open hand symbol: It’s the official symbol of Chandigarh and is symbolic to peace as was conceptualized by Le Corbusier. Standing at 26 meters, it represents ‘to give and to offer’. Furthermore, it freely rotates basis the wind direction. Isn’t it interesting!
4. Chandigarh is laid down in line to the structure of the human body: The head of the body is Capitol Complex in Sector 1. City Center known as the heart is in Sector 17. The lungs of the city are Leisure Valley comprising of several parks. The road network represents a circulatory system where vertical roads are called Paths and horizontal roads as Marg’s. Now that’s some serious thinking.
5. The pensioner’s paradise: Chandigarh is the capital city of Haryana and Punjab, and due to this, it hosts three governments. Due to this, there is a large proportion of residents who are either government employees or retired citizens and enjoy a pensioner’s privileges later in their lives.
6. Chandigarh has a rich historical lineage: Nearly 8000 years ago, medieval Chandigarh was said to be home to Harappans. After 1947, India’s Punjab needed new capital to replace Lahore, which became part of Pakistan. In 1949, American planner Albert Mayer was given the responsibility to conceptualizing Chandigarh which was complete in 1960.
7. City of round-about with no statues: After every few meters, you will find a round-about throughout Chandigarh. All round-about have flowers, plants, fountains yet none has any statue or sculpture as was laid down by Le Corbusier!

Chandigarh has something extraordinary in its ambience, and it embraces all, the tourists or residents. So, when do you intend to plan a visit to Chandigarh?