Chandigarh: History, Geography, Economy and Tourism
Chandigarh is one of the best known planned cities in the world. It sits at the foot of the Shivalik hills in north India and serves as the capital of two states, Punjab and Haryana, while being run as a union territory by the central government. This guide explains why the city was built, how it was designed, what its land and weather are like, how people earn a living there and what visitors can see.
Our old post on this topic was short, hard to read and had a few wrong figures, including mixed up map coordinates. We have rewritten it in plain English with checked facts.
Table of Contents
Chandigarh at a Glance
- Status: Union territory and shared capital of Punjab and Haryana.
- Area: About 114 square kilometres.
- Population: 1,055,450 at the 2011 census.
- Height above sea level: About 321 metres.
- Official languages: English and Hindi, with Punjabi also widely spoken.
- Known for: Le Corbusier’s architecture, the Rock Garden, Sukhna Lake and its green sectors.
Where the Name Comes From
The name means the fort of Chandi. It comes from a village temple to the goddess Chandi, a form of Shakti, that stood on the land chosen for the city. That temple, Chandi Mandir, still stands on the edge of the city, in Panchkula district of Haryana. The city also calls itself The City Beautiful, a phrase taken from a planning movement in America and used in official publications since the 1970s.
History of Chandigarh
Why a New Capital Was Needed
When India was divided in 1947, the old province of Punjab was split in two. Lahore, its capital, went to Pakistan. The Indian state of East Punjab was left without a capital, and its offices were scattered, with many working from Shimla. At the same time, huge numbers of refugees from West Punjab needed homes and work. Leaders decided that building a fresh city would cost about as much as expanding an old one, and would also give people a sense of a new start. You can read more about that time in our post on independence and partition.
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru strongly backed the plan. He wanted a city that would be a symbol of the freedom of India, free from the traditions of the past and an expression of the nation’s faith in the future. Learn more about Jawaharlal Nehru.
Choosing the Site
In 1948 officials studied several possible sites. They chose land in the Kharar tehsil of the old Ambala district, between two seasonal streams below the hills. The land of about fifty eight villages, with large mango groves, was taken for the project. Villagers protested at first, and the government reached an agreement with them in October 1950, setting up a committee to help those who were displaced.
From Mayer to Le Corbusier
The first planner was Albert Mayer, an American town planner hired in December 1949. He drew a fan shaped plan with curving streets and large neighbourhood units, working with the Polish born architect Matthew Nowicki. In August 1950, Nowicki died in a plane crash, and Mayer soon left the project.
Officials then turned to the Swiss French architect Le Corbusier. He arrived in India in February 1951 and led a team that included the English architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. Le Corbusier kept the main ideas of the earlier plan, such as the places for the government complex, the railway station and the industrial area. But he swapped the curving streets for a straight grid of rectangular blocks called sectors. Each sector was meant to have its own homes, shops, schools and green spaces within walking distance.
He also planned a system of seven types of roads, from fast highways down to footpaths and cycle tracks, to keep fast traffic apart from people on foot. Young Indian architects worked with the team and later designed many of the city’s buildings themselves.
Building the City
Work moved quickly on a tight budget, using mostly local materials and a great deal of hand labour. By September 1953, all state government offices had moved from Shimla. On 7 October 1953, President Rajendra Prasad formally inaugurated the new capital. Sector 22 was the first sector to be developed.
The High Court began working in March 1955, and the Assembly building was finished in 1962. Pierre Jeanneret stayed on as chief architect until 1965, and Le Corbusier remained involved until his death that year. During digging for the new city, workers found pottery and other remains of the Indus Valley civilisation near present day sector 17.
A Union Territory
In 1966, the old Punjab state was divided along language lines into Punjab and Haryana, with some hill areas going to Himachal Pradesh. Both new states claimed Chandigarh. The central government made the city a union territory and kept it as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, an arrangement that continues today. Since 1984, the Governor of Punjab has also served as the administrator of the union territory. The city elects one member to the Lok Sabha.
Geography and Climate
Chandigarh lies on flat, fertile land at the foot of the Shivalik range, the outermost hills of the Himalayas. It borders Haryana to the east and Punjab on the other sides. Its exact position is about 30.74 degrees north and 76.79 degrees east. Delhi is about 250 kilometres to the south, and Shimla about 104 kilometres to the north east.
The city has a humid subtropical climate. Summers are very hot, winters are mild, and rainfall varies a lot from year to year. Temperatures can range from about minus 1 to 45 degrees Celsius. Average yearly rainfall is about 1,038 millimetres, most of it in the monsoon. From mid December to April, weather systems called Western Disturbances bring winter rain, and sometimes hail that can damage crops.
Economy
Chandigarh is one of the richest cities in India and has one of the highest incomes per person in the country. Government is a major employer, since the city houses the offices of three governments: Punjab, Haryana and the union territory administration. Many retired government and armed forces staff also choose to live here.
Services make up most of the economy. The Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park, also called the IT Park, hosts software and outsourcing firms. Large institutions such as the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, known as PGIMER, and Panjab University bring jobs, students and patients from across north India. Trade, banking, retail and small manufacturing units also support the economy.
Places to Visit
Capitol Complex
The Capitol Complex holds the High Court, the Secretariat and the Assembly, all designed by Le Corbusier in bold exposed concrete. In July 2016, it became part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing of seventeen Le Corbusier works around the world. Nearby is the Open Hand Monument, finished in 1985, which is now the official symbol of the city. It stands for openness, the hand that gives and receives.
Rock Garden
The Rock Garden began as a secret project. A road inspector named Nek Chand started building it in 1957 on forest land, using stones, broken pottery, bangles, tiles and other waste from the villages cleared for the city. Officials found it years later, and instead of pulling it down, they opened it to the public in 1976. Today its winding paths, waterfalls and thousands of figures draw large crowds.
Sukhna Lake
Sukhna Lake is a rain fed lake of about 3 square kilometres, made in 1958 by damming a seasonal stream from the Shivalik hills. People come here for boating, morning walks and sunsets. The hills behind it are part of a protected wildlife sanctuary.
Rose Garden and Other Parks
The Zakir Hussain Rose Garden has about 825 varieties of roses and hosts the Rose Festival every February. Leisure Valley, a long belt of parks, runs through the city.
Getting There and Around
Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, whose terminal stands just outside the city in Mohali, has flights to many Indian cities. Chandigarh Junction railway station connects the city to Delhi and other parts of the country. Local buses run by the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking serve the sectors and nearby towns. The grid of numbered sectors makes the city easy to find your way around once you know the system.
What We Changed From the Old Post
We rewrote the post in plain English and added sections on the name, the building of the city, the union territory, places to visit and travel. We also mention Mohali and Panchkula, the two neighbouring cities that form the Tricity with Chandigarh.
We fixed the map coordinates, which had latitude and longitude swapped, and corrected the temperature range and average rainfall. We removed factory counts that we could not confirm from a current source and clarified the roles of Albert Mayer and Le Corbusier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Chandigarh a state?
No. Chandigarh is a union territory run by the central government, and it is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana.
Who designed Chandigarh?
The first master plan was drawn by Albert Mayer. After 1950, Le Corbusier took over and designed the final plan and the Capitol Complex, working with Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.
When was Chandigarh inaugurated?
President Rajendra Prasad inaugurated the new capital on 7 October 1953.