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Urban economist Alain underscores importance of accessibility in Chandigarh
The inaugural programme, held at the CRRID Conference Hall in Sector 19, brought together leading urban thinkers, architects, planners, academicians and citizens to examine the legacy of India’s first planned modern city and its future trajectory
Urban economist and city planner Alain Bertaud on Saturday offered a critical and reflective assessment of Chandigarh’s urban evolution, as the Chandigarh Citizens Foundation (CCF) launched a year-long series of events to mark 75 years of the making of Chandigarh.
The inaugural programme, held at the CRRID Conference Hall in Sector 19, brought together leading urban thinkers, architects, planners, academicians and citizens to examine the legacy of India’s first planned modern city and its future trajectory.
Delivering the keynote address, Bertaud, who worked in Chandigarh in 1963 under Pierre Jeanneret and Jeet Malhotra presented an outsider’s perspective on the city’s transformation from the early 1960s to the present day. Drawing from his global experience and his influential book “Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities”, Bertaud stressed that market forces, economic realities and mobility systems play a decisive role in shaping liveable and sustainable cities.
Recalling Chandigarh as a small, walkable city with minimal vehicular traffic during his early years, Bertaud noted how its scale and spatial footprint have expanded over the decades. He underscored the importance of accessibility and transport coordination, cautioning against viewing only the central sectors as the city’s core. Instead, he argued for treating Chandigarh as an integrated urban system, where mobility networks connect people to jobs, services and opportunities efficiently.
“The way people move within a city defines how it functions,” Bertaud emphasised, highlighting the need for coordinated transport planning to ensure inclusivity and economic vitality.
The keynote was followed by a presentation from eminent architect and Padma Shri awardee Bimal Patel, who spoke on people-centric and context-driven urban design, drawing from large-scale national projects such as the Central Vista Redevelopment and the New Parliament Building in New Delhi.
One of the key moments of the event was the felicitation of modernist architect Shiv Dutt Sharma by CCF president Gen VP Malik (retd.). Sharma, a member of the original Chandigarh Capital Project Team under Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret and former chief architect of ISRO, was honoured for his lifelong contribution to the city and for his role in conserving its architectural heritage.
Concluding the event, CCF presented mementos to Alain Bertaud and Bimal Patel and announced a series of forthcoming initiatives, including a national-level exhibition from February 24 to March 22, 2026, and a global conference on sustainable urban design in November 2026, as part of the 75-year celebrations.
