Chandigarh is all geared up to host the second International Yoga Day, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead thousands of participants in a mass yoga programme to be held on Tuesday.
The city’s Capitol Complex, one of the acclaimed creations of French architect le Corbusier, has been spruced up for the national yoga event. The Capitol Complex comprises the buildings of the Secretariat, Assembly and the High Court apart from several monuments.
The function will begin at 6.30 am, which will include about 20 minutes address by PM Modi followed by 45 minutes of Yoga protocol demonstration.
A total of 30,000 participants, 10,000 each from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana, donning white T-shirts and black or blue lowers, will perform deep breathing and muscle stretch exercises against the backdrop of the Capitol Complex.
The complex is divided into alphabetically from A to H block where 500 master trainers along with their team members will perform. Nearly 600 buses will be used to ferry the participants to the venue.
While the main event will be held at Capitol Complex, the local residents will do yoga at a total of 180 centres spread across the city for which nearly 45,000 people have been enrolled.
Among those who will attend the event at Capitol Complex include Punjab and Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki, who is also UT Administrator, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Haryana counterpart Manohar lal Khattar, Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher.
For the first time, 150 Divyangs, a nomenclature coined by Modi for differently-abled people, would be assisted in performing yogic asanas at the Capitol Complex.
More than 30,500 India-made coloured mats with the yoga day logo will be laid on around 12 lakh sq ft of area for the participants to perform yoga at the Complex.
The UT Administration has also decided to felicitate best yoga performers with cash prizes.
Yoga enthusiasts can upload their videos while performing ‘asanas’ and send them to facebook.Com/iydchd2016 or tweet with #IYDCHD2016. The first, second and third prize winners will get Rs10000, Rs8000 and Rs5000 respectively.
A selfie zone has also been set up at the main venue.
“The UT Administration has made special arrangements for the participants. 40 lED (light-emitting diode) screens and 300 prefabricated bio-toilets have been installed at the main venue,” said UT Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal while talking to the mediapersons.
He said, “likewise, lED screens have been put up at 100 venues across the city for live telecast of the main event at Capitol Complex.”
As many as 23 sculptures made from waste, depicting yoga asanas, have also been installed at the Capitol Complex. The sculptures made by Anuj Saini, son of late Nek Chand, the creator of the iconic ‘Rock Garden are created from waste material like ceramic tiles, broken crockery which have been the highlight of Rock Garden.
Tight security arrangements have also been put in place for the national event. More than 5,000 police and paramilitary personnel will keep a hawk-eye vigil to secure the venue. The entry to the venue will start at 4 am and close by 5:30 am through designated entry points.
In the run-up to the second International Yoga Day, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev along with their thousands of followers participated in the four-day yoga festival in Chandigarh.
Also, as part of the build-up to the mega event, world’s first 3-D impressions of yoga were displayed at Sukhna lake. Yoga flash-mob and moonlight yoga were also organised ahead of the event in the city.
This is the second visit of Modi in six months to Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex. Earlier this year, Modi had received visiting French President Francois Hollande at the Capitol Complex in January.
Meanwhile, rainfall may hamper the main event of International Yoga Day in the city. The MET Department here has forecast possibility of rains on Tuesday morning.