Amid public outcry over the demolition of a wall at the iconic Rock Garden for a road-widening and parking area project, the UT administration has told the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) that work would be complete by March 31.
A senior UT official said that the work is being carried out during weekends in view of the traffic situation during weekdays.
The UT had come up with the road-widening plan after the HC directed it to resolve the traffic bottlenecks around the court by removing a corner of the Rock Garden near the multi-level parking.
While residents, social activists and heritage conservationists have been protesting against the demolition, the UT administration has stated that the said wall is not part of the Rock Garden, designed by Nek Chand. It was built to enclose the adjacent forest land, the administration maintained.
The plan has been approved, with the necessary conversion of forest land to non-forest land authorised by the Government of India.
The Rock Garden and the area outside it is not a part of the Capitol Complex, which has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Moreover, the proposal, which requires the shifting of the wall, has been shared with stakeholders concerned, including a sub-committee of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee (CHCC), ensuring that the project aligns with the conservation efforts.
{{/usCountry}}The Rock Garden and the area outside it is not a part of the Capitol Complex, which has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Moreover, the proposal, which requires the shifting of the wall, has been shared with stakeholders concerned, including a sub-committee of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee (CHCC), ensuring that the project aligns with the conservation efforts.
{{/usCountry}}Residents urge to halt demolition
Prominent residents of the city have expressed strong opposition to the demolition of a part of the wall of the Rock Garden and felling of hundreds of trees to create a road to the ever-increasing parking space for the High Court. They have written a letter to UT Adminsitrator Gulab Chand Kataria to immedietely halt the demolition work.
The residents, ML Sareen, RK Garg, Samita Kaur, Amrita Singh, Paveela Prashar Bali, Kismet Nakai, Priyanka Saini, and Deepika Gandhi, formed a group named ‘Saving Chandigarh’ and wrote a letter to the Punjab Governor and UT Administrator, stating that the Rock Garden and its precincts fall under Grade 1 Heritage site as per the Chandigarh Master Plan-2031 and also within the catchment area of the Sukhna Lake.
“This insensitive destruction not only disregards the historic and cultural significance of this world-famous creation but also violates both heritage and environmental laws which prohibit any construction in this protected zone. This unfortunate development is another example of the alarming breakdown of the city’s well-planned fabric in the name of need based changes,” they stated.