Chandigarh

Chandigarh is a Union Territory of about 114 sq km and serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, neither of which it belongs to. It sits at the foot of the Shivalik hills in the plains north of Delhi.

The city was designed in the 1950s by Le Corbusier and a team of architects, with a grid of sectors, a separate capitol complex, and a lake at its northern edge. The Rock Garden, built from industrial and household waste by Nek Chand, is the city’s best-known site. Because it is a planned administrative city with a small population and a large service sector, its per-capita income and human development indicators are among the highest in India.

Chandigarh has no rural hinterland of consequence and no large industry. It depends on government employment, services and education. The territory was created in 1966 when Punjab was reorganised along linguistic lines, and a long-running claim over its transfer to Punjab remains formally unresolved.