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Sunday, December 13, 2015

The City Beautiful - Chandigarh

There are few places where the times spent call you over and over again, to re-live the experiences. I spent 3 years in one such place, a place where I spread my wings and soared in the sky literally. The city is Chandigarh - the city beautiful as the welcome plaque says.

Source: Ghumakkar

This is one the few planned cities of modern India. It is a city and a Union Territory in the north west of India. The city of Chandigarh was the first planned city in India post-independence in 1947 and is known internationally for its architecture and urban design. The master plan of the city was prepared by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, transformed from earlier plans created by the Polish architect Maciej Nowicki and the American planner Albert Mayer. Most of the government buildings and housing in the city, however, were designed by the Chandigarh Capital Project Team headed by Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. (Source: Wikipedia)

Connect:

Wide multi-lane roads connect the city throughout. Well maintained roads provide excellent connectivity for your drive. It is evident in the plan below how well planned the city is:
Source: Master Plan India

Design:

The roads of the city are classified into seven categories known as systems of 7 Vs as below :

V-1 Fast roads connecting Chandigarh to other towns.
V-2 Arterial roads.
V-3 Fast vehicular sector dividing roads.
V-4 Meandering shopping streets.
V-5 Sector circulation roads.
V-6 Access roads to houses.
V-7 Foot paths and cycle tracks.

Due to the presence of roundabouts at about every mile, traffic congestion is very less.

Drive:

Due to the presence of roundabouts at about every mile, traffic congestion is very less. The city boasts of an informal drive circuit - the Geri Route. The Geri route is a set of streets in northern Chandigarh where youth, mostly students, regularly drive cars and motorbikes. The word geri means "rounds", and thus the name derives from the "rounds" that people make through the route.The route, spans from Sectors 8,9,10 to 11, with the core being around DAV College, Home Science College for Girls in Sector-10 and Govt. College for Girls in Sector-11. It has been used in this manner since the 1970s, with the route especially gaining popularity in the 1980s when car ownership became more common among young residents.

Driving around the city thus is a pleasure. The fantastic street food, the luxurious shopping of sector 17, the sheer pleasure of walking on tree laden roads, I guess I would like to go back and relive my student days. The vibrancy of Punjab, the colors, the frolic, the "masti" all is evident and is in abundance all around Chandigarh. It is a modern city, yet manages to avoid congestion and keep itself a wonderful place to live life king size!


Written in response to #madeofgreat prompt.

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