Stop demolition work at Rock Garden: City residents to Kataria

Prominent residents of the city today shot off a letter to Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria urging him to stop the demolition of a portion of the Rock Garden wall to widen the road of the Punjab and Haryana High Court parking area.

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In the letter, Saving Chandigarh — a group formed by city residents ML Sareen, RK Garg, Samita Kaur, Amrita Singh, Paveela Prashar Bali, Kismet Nakai, Priyanka Saini and Deepika Gandhi — has stated that the Rock Garden and its precincts fall under Grade 1 heritage site as per the Chandigarh Master Plan-2031. The site also falls within the catchment area of Sukhna Lake.

“This insensitive destruction not only disregards the historic and cultural significance of the world-famous creation, but also violates both heritage and environmental laws that prohibit any construction in this protected zone.  This development is another example of the alarming breakdown of the city’s well-planned fabric in the name of need-based changes,” they stated.

They requested the Administrator to act immediately to stop the demolition work and uphold the laws meant to protect “our shared heritage”.

“This is to also assert that any future interventions and alterations to any part of the city should be undertaken after due consideration of the aesthetic, functional and environmental impact of the development,” they added.

Meanwhile, the UT Administration has planned to complete the road-widening work near the high court by March 31.

According to officials, the work was proposed to be completed latest by March 31. Due to congestion in the area, a major part of the work was being carried out during weekends, said officials.

The road was being widened to decongest the parking areas around the High Court. However, the Administration had claimed that the wall was not part of the Rock Garden designed by Nek Chand, and was built to enclose the adjacent forest land.

The High Court had mandated that the UT Administration should address the traffic bottlenecks caused by the jutting-out corner of the Rock Garden near the multi-level parking and this was affecting the traffic flow in the area, especially near the High Court. Following the directions, the Administration came up with the road-widening project.