Chandigarh
24 December 2019
DIVYA AZAD
Traffic problem and congestion has really put doubt on architectural plans of Le Corbusier, who had designed the first planned city of India – Chandigarh, basing his style on the Grid Pattern of Indus Valley Civilization. All of a sudden everyone including the present administration is hell-bound on changing the basic architecture of the City Beautiful and proposing a flyover at Tribune Chowk as a possible solution to solve the congestion problem of the entire town.
But flyovers in Zirakpur and other places have failed to solve the problem in totality and flyover at the entry point of Sector 20 in Panchkula has been proving a terrible nightmare for the local residents and the passersby.
Today a public hearing session on ‘Tribune Chowk Flyover’ was called by UT Advisor Manoj Kumar Parida (IAS), on the directions of Punjab and Haryana High Court at UT Guest House in Sector 6, Chandigarh. Various suggestions were given by more than 50 participants from different walks of life, who wanted to hold the cultural heritage of the City without harming the architecture, and there were others who wanted to decongest the traffic at the Tribune Chowk, the entry point of Chandigarh, with a flyover or an outer ring road, whatever is possible. Preservation of the trees on Chandigarh-Zirakpur road and protecting the skyline of the heritage city was a concern.
Raising his concern over the issue, Dr Ritesh Arya, a Geologist by profession and a PhD holder from Panjab University, Chandigarh, was of the strong opinion that “the roundabouts, the clean air, open spaces, the skyline and view of the Himalayas were the biggest charm in living in Chandigarh”. In his view, all the solutions, therefore, should be in line keeping in view the present architecture and skyline, air and space of the city, plus keeping the heritage intact.
Using the ancient Iron Grid architecture of the Indus Civilization, on which Le Corbusier based his plan for the creation of Chandigarh, Dr Ritesh Arya, Guinness World Record holder, proposed “Lateral Underways across all conflicting points in Chandigarh, in line with those already present at Manimajra and underways connecting Sector 15 and 11, but slightly on a larger scale, keeping all the roundabouts intact.” This will keep the ancient architecture and plan of the city intact and help to maintain the serenity and the heritage of the City in years to come.
Dr Ritesh Arya, Founder President of Earth Science Centre (ESC) Kasauli, smilingly says “being a geologist all my solutions lie underground not overground”.
