The New York Times “52 places to go” list for 2018 is filled with beautiful and adventurous destinations from all over the world. However, this year, leaving all the cities behind, the only Indian city to have made it to the list was the city beautiful, Chandigarh.
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Described as a “green city and a mecca for architecture lovers,” the capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana ranks at number 43. It is mostly known for its Le Corbusier-designed government compound, the capitol complex, now a UNESCO world heritage site, and the newly-opened luxury resort, Oberoi Sukhvilas, located over 8,000 acres of forest just outside the city.
Chandigarh is a city and a union territory in India. It is definitely a very unusual place for most tourists, despite its rich history and architectural heritage. Meanwhile, according to the data from India’s ministry of tourism the states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh that attracted the most number of foreign tourists in 2016, among the domestic ones, Punjab didn’t even feature among the top 10 destinations.
However, the history of Chandigarh makes it one of the most fascinating cities of modern India. Assigned by the country’s first prime minister, Chandigarh was drafted in a way to be India’s first planned city. The iconic Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, agreed to create the master plan for the city in 1950. Even though it was build up from scratch, his team produced Brutalist-style government buildings, grids of roads, and loads of green spaces.
This union territory now ranks as one of India’s cleanest cities but still stands out from the unplanned disorder that characterizes other state capitals. Its heritage buildings have been neglected over the years. The Le Corbusier-designed pieces which included manhole covers and chairs, have been removed from the city, winding up at auctions in the west.
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