Chandigarh Tourism to gain — in Capitol letters

“The city had been trying for a long time and did not succeed in the first attempt. One feels gratified with this news for it is time we celebrated great architect Le Corbusier’s creation,” said Goswami.

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Former director of tourism, UT, Vivek Atray said such an honour increased the “stature and status” of a city. He was confident it would have a huge impact. “Especially a global one. Not only will tourism get a boost, but there will also be conferences, students of architecture and people from rest of India will get interested,” he said.

While Atray hopes this will retain tourists for at least a night stay instead of using Chandigarh as a transit point, director (tourism) Jitender Yadav is happy Chandigarh can now showcase a monument apart from Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden. “Along with international tourists, we are hoping to get a number of domestic tourists too,” said Yadav, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit too brought attention to the city in the world media.

Whether the city is equipped to handle the increased tourist numbers is still debatable, but head (sales), The Taj Chandigarh, Sandeep Makroo is confident. “The city has the infrastructure, it is clean and safe, and will be able to handle. We managed on the recent Yoga Day, on other major events too,” said Makroo.

Documentary filmmaker G S Chani along with prominent architect Namita S Singh maintain that unless this place is turned into a people-friendly space, it will be a wasted opportunity. “This is a place designed for performing artistes, for people to access freely and free of cost, not for judges and MLAs and their security. It holds zero meaning if it is not thrown open to the public,” said Chani.

Unless the public is not given a chance to own the space, they will never know what Chandigarh is all about. “I hope the Capitol Complex is maintained better now, that it does not turn into one of those touch-me-not places far removed from its own people. It has to be pro-people for them to understand their roots,” said Singh.

This time, said Atray, only the Capitol Complex was pitched, which made the process easier. “The team worked real hard for over a year,” he added.