Chandigarh pronunciation, is a union territory of India, that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name translates to English as "The Fort of Chandi". The name was coined from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Goddess Chandi, present in the city's vicinity. It is occasionally referred to as The City Beautiful. Chandigarh Capital Region including Mohali, Panchkula and Zirakpur had a combined population of 1165111 (1.16 million) as per the 2001 census. Known internationally for its architecture and urban planning, It is the first planned city of India. Chandigarh is home to numerous architectural projects of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Matthew Nowicki, and Albert Mayer. The city tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories with the highest per capita income in the country at Rs 110,676 per year (Rs 44,502 in 2000).

History
After the partition of British India into the two nations of India and Pakistan in 1947, the region of Punjab was also split between India and Pakistan. The Indian state of Punjab required a new capital city to replace Lahore, which became part of Pakistan during the partition. After several plans to make additions to existing cities were found to be infeasible for various reasons, the decision to construct a new and planned city was undertaken. Of all the new town schemes in independent India, the Chandigarh project quickly assumed prime significance, because of the city's strategic location as well as the personal interest of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India. Commissioned by Nehru to reflect the new nation's modern, progressive outlook, Nehru famously proclaimed Chandigarh to be "unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future." Several buildings and layouts in Chandigarh were designed by the French (born Swiss) architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier, in the 1950s. Le Corbusier was in fact the second architect of the city, after the initial master plan was prepared by the American architect-planner Albert Mayer who was working with the Poland-born architect Matthew Nowicki. It was only after Nowicki's untimely death in 1950 that Le Corbusier was pulled into the project. On 15 July 2007, Chandigarh became the first Indian city to go smoke-free. Smoking at public places has been strictly prohibited and considered as a punishable act by Chandigarh Administration. That was followed up by a complete ban on polythene bags with effect from 2 October 2008, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.

Geography and Climate
Chandigarh is located near the foothills of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas in Northwest India. It covers an area of approximately 44 sq mi or 114 km². and shares its borders with the states of Haryana in the east and Punjab in the north, west and south. The exact cartographic co-ordinates of Chandigarh are 30.74°N 76.79°E. It has an average elevation of 321 metres (1053 ft). The surrounding districts are of Ambala and Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali, Patiala and Ropar in Punjab. The boundary of the state of Himachal Pradesh is not too far from its north. Chandigarh has a sub-tropical continental monsoon climate characterized by a seasonal rhythm: hot summers, slightly cold winters, unreliable rainfall and great variation in temperature (-1 °C to 41.2 °C). In winter, frost sometimes occurs during December and January. The average annual rainfall is 1110.7 mm. The city also receives occasional winter rains from the west.

 

Education
Chandigarh is known for its quality school education. The schools are affiliated to different types of school curricula. The prominent colleges in Chandigarh include GGDSD College, DAV College, MCM DAV College, Government College for Girls and Boys and Government Teacher Training College. There are model schools set up by the government in various sectors, originally aimed to cater the needs of each sector. It is a major study hub for students all over Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Punjab, Uttaranchal, and also for students from South-East Asia. Chandigarh also houses many prominent institutes of higher learning, such as:

• Chandigarh College of Architecture

• Government College of Fine Arts, Sector 10

• IMTECH (Institute for Microbial Technology)
  

• Indo Swiss Training Centre
  

• National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR)
  

• Panjab University
  

• PGIMER (Postgraduate Institute for Medical Education and Research)
  

• Punjab Engineering College

Also located in neighbouring Mohali is the Chandigarh College of Pharmacy (CCP) and Chandigarh College of Hotel Management and Catering Technology (CCHM).The Indian Institute of Science Education Research (IISER) Mohali has been recently established to carry out research in frontier areas of science and provide quality science education at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) located in nearby Mohali is the first national level institute in pharmaceutical sciences with a proclaimed objective of becoming a center of excellence for advanced studies and research in pharmaceutical sciences. Chandigarh's satellite town of Mohali is home for Center for Development of Advanced Computing's northmost branch C-DAC Mohali that is engaged in research on state-of-the-art topics including Telemedicine.

Transport
Chandigarh has the largest number of vehicles per capita. Wide, well maintained roads and ample parking space all over the city, make it convenient to use private vehicles for local transport. Public buses run by the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU), an undertaking of the Chandigarh Administration, provide local transport as well as inter-state transport services. The Chandigarh Traffic Police oversees the implementation of the traffic rules, and is widely credited for a fairly orderly traffic system. The Traffic Park in Sector 23 introduces children, rickshaw-pullers and new drivers to traffic safety. Rickshaws are common for traveling short distances, especially by school-going children, housewives and the elderly. Auto-rickshaws are limited, and most often ply to and from the ISBT. Most heavy traffic roads now have rickshaw lanes, which the rickshaw-pullers must adhere to compulsorily. The city also boasts of a well established network of modern radio cabs . Chandigarh is well connected by road. The two main National Highways (NH) connecting Chandigarh with the rest of the country are: NH 22 (Ambala - Kalka - Shimla - Kinnaur) and NH 21 (Chandigarh - Leh). Chandigarh has two Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT), one for the North, East and South located in Sector 17, which has regular bus services to most major cites in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, as well as the national capital Delhi, which is about 240 km away. And a second in Sector 43 for the Western section, mainly Punjab, some parts of Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir. Chandigarh has a railway station located about 10 km. away from the ISBT. Regular train connections are available to the national capital New Delhi and to some other junctions like Ambala, Amritsar, Bhiwani, Chennai, Howrah, Kalka, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, Sri Ganganagar and Trivandrum. Chandigarh also has a domestic airport located nearly 12 kilometers from the ISBT. Its name is Chandigarh Airport. Air India, Jet Airways, JetLite and Kingfisher Airlines operate regular flights from Chandigarh to New Delhi and Mumbai. The airport is under process of becoming an international airport and is negotiating with several airlines including Kingfisher and SilkAir for international flights to Bangkok and Singapore, among other South East Asian countries
In the near future, the city will also see a Metro Rail, and an international airport. They are both approved by the governments, and are now at the design step to finalize the project design.


Sporting Venues and Gardens
Chandigarh is home to numerous intra country sporting teams in tournaments like PHL and IPL. The city has built upon this achievements a network of sound infrastructure ranging from stadium to training camps. This include the entire gamut from cricket stadiums, swimming pools, shooting ranges to skating rinks and hockey stadiums. Chandigarh also has gardens across the entire city. The most famous being the Rose Garden.