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Historical
Circumstances for need of Chandigarh
August 15, 1947, the day of independence of India was also the day of
division of a nation into India and Pakistan, this was also the day of
division of State of Punjab (Punj+Aab) named so for being the land of five
rivers being divided into two states West punjab gone in Pakistan with
retaining Lahore as its capital and East Punjab in India became a state
without a capital. Shimla which used to be the summer capital of India and
had the infrastructure was salected as the temporary capital of Punjab.
The Government of Punjab selected brilliant young engineer
Mr. P.L. Verma to undertake the tasks
of search for a premanent Capital City for the State of Punjab.
At that time the Punjabis were very nostalgic about Lahore. Till the last
moment they hoped that Lahore would remain with India. The loss was felt
acutely and people were eager for a city similar to Lahore be built. So
Verma and his team of engineers savoured the concept of a larger independent
town, when most of the bureaucrats and politicians favoured the concept of a
small settlement attached to one of the existing towns. Bureaucrats were
conscious of the acute shortage of funds and the very small financial outlay
for Punjab. Each politician was eager that this capital be built in the area
from where he came. All politicians were trying to pull the capital towards
their own constituency.
Under such circumstances Mr. Verma had to lobby intensively with the
bureaucrats and the politicians. And it was essentially an account of his
dedicated and relentless efforts and lobbying that this idea of a large
independent town was finally accepted by Government of Punjab.
Selection of Site
After investigating a no. of sites, the team of engineers & bureaucrats
headed by Mr. P.L. Verma, selected the existing site of Chandigarh which met
almost all the requirements for a new city.
The area was a flat, gently sloping plain of
agricultural land dotted with groves of mango trees which marked the sites
of 24 villages or hamlets -- one of which was named Chandigarh on account of
its temple dedicated to the goddess.
The general ground level of the site ranges from 305 to 366 meters with a 1
per cent grade giving adequate drainage. To the northeast are the foothills
of the Himalayas -- the Shivalik Range
-- rising abruptly to about 1524 meters and a dramatic natural backdrop. One
seasonal stream, the Patiali ki Rao,
lies on the western side of the city and another,
the Sukhna Choe, on the eastern side. A third, smaller
seasonal stream flows through the very center of Chandigarh. The area along
this stream bed has been turned into a series
of public gardens called the Leisure Valley.
And finally in March, 1948, the Government of Punjab in consultation with
the Government of India, approved a 114.59 sq. km tract of land at the foot
of the Shivalik Hills in Ropar district as the site of the new capital. An
existing village gave its name (Chandi - Goddess of
Power + garh - fortress) to the new city.
Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the
First prime minister of India was also quite initimately involved wioth the
Chandigarh project.
Pandit Nehru immediately took the final decision and
on his visit to the project site on April 2, 1952, said," The site chosen
is free from the existing encumbances of old towns and old traditions. Let
it be the first expression of our creative genius flowing on our newly
earned freedom.-----Let it be a new town symbolic of the freedom of India
unfattered by the traditions of the past and axpression of the nation's
faith in the future.---The new capital of Punjab will be christened as
Chandigarh-a name symbolic of the valiant spirit of the Punjabis. Chandigarh
is rightly associated with the name of Goddess Chandi -- Shakti, or power."
American Architects
In the late 1940's very few Indian architects were professionally trained in
town planning so it was necessary to look abroad for a man to carry out the
Chandigarh scheme. The search led to the USA and
Albert Mayer. Graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and founder of the large New York
architectural firm of Mayer, Whittlesey and Glass.
Soon after his appointment in 1950, Mayer wrote
to Nehru: "I feel in all solemnity that this will be a source of great
stimulation to city building and replanning in India -- it will be the
synthesis and integration in the world to date of all that has been learned
and talked of in planning over the past 30 years. Yet, I feel we have been
able to make it strongly Indian in feeling and function as well as modern."
His brief was to prepare a master plan for a city of half a million people,
showing the location of major roads and areas for residence, business,
industry, recreation and allied uses. He was also to prepare detailed
building plans for the Capitol Complex, City Centre, and important
government facilities and architectural controls for other areas.
Although Mayer's contract did not stipulate detailed architectural schemes,
he felt that they could not isolate two-dimensional planning of the city
from its architectural character.
And it was left mainly to Nowicki his talented
younger partner to sketch out conceptual schemes for the image
of the city.
On August 31, 1950, Nowicki died in a plane crash. Mayer felt that he could
not handle the monumental project alone and withdrew, severing the American
connection with Chandigarh.
Entry of Le Corbusier
With the withdrwal of Mayer, Mr. P L Verma (Chief Engineer) and P N Thapar
(Administrator of the Capitol Project) formed a committee of two and were
assigned the task of visiting eight Europian countries i.e. UK, Holland,
France, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland in search of able
architects and town planners who would lead the project upto completion.
They left India on Nov. 05, 1950 and returned on Dec. 24, 1950 after
selecting and making Charles-Edouard Jeanneret
popularly known as Le Corbusier agreed to take on this project
alongwith Piere Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Jane
Drew.
Le Corbusier was assigned to look at the master plan prepared byMayer and
make modifications, or make new master plan.
Later he would design the capitol complex buildings and work on the
architectural control of various areas.
He prepared the plan in a matter of weeks and gave it to Govt. justifying
that it was cheaper and space efficient. It was on this basis that his
master plan was accepted but he did incorporate some features of the Mayer
plan. The two plans remained practically the same with the shifting of
certain functions.
The Capitol Complex, City centre, Industrial area & Educational Zones were
all there.
The plan was accepted and Fry, Drew, Jeanneret were to detail the Sectors as
well as design the Govt. buildings in them.
The over all administrative control of the office was with Maxwell Fry.
Eminent Indian members of Capitol Project team
| - P.N. Thapar, |
The Administrator
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| - P.L. Verma |
Chief Engineer |
| - Mr. Dogra |
Under Secretary |
| - M.N. Sharma |
First Indian Architect to join Matthew Nowicki. |
| - Ms. Eulie Choudhury |
Only Indian Architect who could speak French. |
| - A.R. Prabhakavalkar |
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| - Aditya Prakash |
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| - Jeet Malhotra |
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| - B.P. Mathur |
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| - J.S. Dithe |
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| - N.S. Lamba |
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