The City Beautiful ‘Chandigarh’ is all set to roll out a red carpet welcome to French President Francois Hollande who is scheduled to reach the city on Sunday.
Hollande, who will be the chief guest at the January 26 Republic Day Parade in New Delhi, will land straight in Chandigarh, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to receive him on January 24.
The French President had expressed his desire to visit Chandigarh, the first post-Independence planned city in the country that was designed by renowned French architect le Corbusier in the 1950s and the 1960s.
As per the information, Hollande will visit Chandigarh's 'Capitol Complex', Rock Garden, Sector 17 Plaza, the city's commercial and business centre, Tagore Theatre and the le Corbusier Centre in Sector 19, where the master-planner and his team worked and conceptualised the city.
The higher authorities certainly want the French President to see the city in rosy colours. Chandigarh, the joint Capital of Punjab and Haryana is all decked up with roads and pavements of all areas through which the Hollande 's motorcade will pass been given a fresh look. Besides, ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, the cleanliness drive campaign envisaged by the Prime Minister is in full swing in various parts of the city.
Security has also been beefed up ahead of Hollande’s visit in the city. Several areas in the city will remain out of bounds for local residents till the VVIP visit ends on Sunday evening.
After the recent terror attacks in Paris, Hollande is amongst the most protected men in the world. The terrorist strike at the Pathankot Air Base, 235 km from here, and the continuing terror alerts across Punjab, have also been factored in by his security team in the planning of the visit.
Punjab and Haryana along with the central security agencies will assist the Chandigarh Police to keep a strict vigil. Security around the venues, which the VVIPs will visit, has also been tightened.
Teams of French security and foreign ministry office and the Indian ministry of external affairs (MEA) have already visited Chandigarh to work out details of the high-profile visit.
The French Ambassador to India had recently visited the city in preparation for the President's visit. He had met with the senior officers of Chandigarh Administration here.
Talking about the preparations for French President’s visit, Chandigarh mayor Arun Sood told the mediapersons, "The civic body is sprucing up the city. Road berms and walls are being repaired and painted, garbage and debris are being picked up. We will present them a very beautiful city during the visit of the French President and Modi-ji.”
He added that the preparations are in full swing in the city for the VVIPs visit.
Rock Garden creator Nek Chand's family too is eagerly awaiting the French President's visit to the facility. Hollande will enter from the exit and see the last part of the Rock Garden. He will be showcased how Nek Chand used to make everything from waste.
According to the Police sources, the French president will stay at the Taj Hotel in Sector 17 in the few hours that he will be in the city.
Notably, the UT Administration, which had been reprimanded by the Union Home Ministry recently for going overboard on the security part and virtually locking in the entire city last September when Prime Minister Modi first visited the city after assuming office, is ensuring that nothing of that sort is repeated even though two VVIPs will be here on the same day.
Modi’s first visit to Chandigarh as Prime Minister was a public relations fiasco, with schools shut down, people asked to remain indoors, and even the crematorium inaccessible. Congress leaders were AlSO detained the previous night. The lockdown, which resembled a curfew, led to public outrage at the inconvenience caused.
All these measures, which caused residents much harassment, drew considerable flak, forcing Modi to tweet and apologize and even order a probe into the matter.
Chandigarh, which is the first planned city in India after the country got Independence in 1947, is known across the world for its architecture and urban design.
Swiss-born French architect le Corbusier, whose real name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, led a team of European planners to design Chandigarh. The country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted the city to be a symbol of post-independence modern India.
Corbusier planned the city on the lines of a human body— the Capitol Complex was to be the head of the body, the commercial centre its heart, the industrial area its hand and the intellectual centre being the parkland.
The Capitol Complex was conceived by Corbusier himself. The main buildings here, the secretariat complex, the legislative assembly complex and the high court Complex, were completed during his time. The 'Open Hand' monument, the symbol of Chandigarh, is also in this complex.