'SOMETHING GOOD COMETH OUT OF EVIL'; thus goes the Biblical
saying. This legendry proverb aptly describes the birth of
the city of Chandigarh, which was conceived immediately after
India‘s Independence in 1947. With the partition in
the subcontinent, Lahore, the capital of undivided Punjab
fell within Pakistan, leaving East Punjab without a Capital.
It was decided to built a new Capital city called Chandigarh
about 240 kms. north of New Delhi on a gently sloping terrain
with foothills of the Himalayas the Shivalik range of the
North and two Seasonal rivulets flowing on its two sides approximately
7-8 kms apart. The geographical location of the city is 30 degree
50' N latitude and 76 degree 48' longitude and it lies at an
altitude varying from 304.8 to 365.76 meters above sea
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Independent India’s first
Prime Minister, laid down the founding principles of the new
city when he said “Let this be a new town, symbolic
of freedom of India unfettered by the traditions of the past…..
an expressions of the nation’s faith in the future”.
The city is a product of Nehru’s vision.
SELECTION OF SITE
To select a suitable site, the Govt. of Punjab appointed
a Committee in 1948 under the Chairmanship of P.L Verma, Chief
Engineer to assess and evaluate the existing towns in the
State for setting up the proposed capital of Punjab. However,
none was found suitable on the basis of several reasons, such
as military vulnerability, shortage of drinking water, inaccessibility,
inability to cope in flux of large number of refugees etc.
The present site was selected in 1948 taking into account
various attributes such as its Central location in the state,
proximity to the national capital & availability of sufficient
water supply, fertile of soil, gradient of land for natural
drainage, beautiful site with the panorama of blue hills as
backdrop & moderate climate.
An American Firm, M/s. Mayer, Whittlessay and Glass was commissioned
in 1950 to prepare the Master Plan for the new City. Albert
Mayer and Mathew Novicki evolved a fan shaped Master Plan
and worked out conceptual sketches of the super block. The
super block was designed as a self –sufficient neighborhood
units placed along the curvilinear roads and comprised of
cluster type housing, markets and centrally located open spaces.
Novicki was tragically killed in an air accident and Mayer
decided to discontinue. Thereafter, the work was assigned
to a team of architects led by Charles Eduard Jeanneret better
known as Le Corbusier in 1951.
He was assisted by three senior architects, Maxwell Fry,
his wife Jane B Drew and Corbusier’s cousin, Pierre
Jeanneret. These senior architects were supported by a team
of young Indian architect and planner consisting of M.N. Sharma,
A. R. Prabhawalkar, U.E. Chowdhary, J.S. Dethe, B.P. Mathur,
Aditya Prakash, N.S. Lanbha and others.
The Master Plan was developed by Le Corbusier who also designed
the Capital Complex and established the architectural control
& design of the main building of the city. The design
of housing for Govt. employees, schools, shopping centers,
hospitals were disturbed among the three senior architects.
Maxwell Fry and Jane B. Drew worked for about three years
on the project and then left due to their engagements elsewhere.
Pierre Jeanneret who ultimately became the Chief Architect
and Town Planning Adviser to Govt. of Punjab returned to Switzerland
in 1965. M.N. Sharma took over from Pierre Jeanneret as the
first Indian Chief Architect of the Project and after the
reorganization of the State of Punjab in 1966 and the establishment
of Union Territory, Chandigarh, he was appointed as Administrative
Secretary of the Department of Architecture in the Chandigarh
Administration. The major buildings designed by these architects
are the important landmarks in the city.
Jane B. Drew