Y.S. Rana,CHANDIGARH, Feb 15 : It is 50 years since Le Corbusier, a French Architect who designed the City Beautiful left India. But he has left a memory- a legacy- in the form of his architecture. Ever- increasing population of Chandigarh and lack of living space might have made it imperative to make space for new buildings, resulting in destruction of corbusier’s legacy. Also, one cannot deny the fact that Chandigarh is what it is because of its glorious past of Le. We live with our past, it is our pride and we cannot deny it.
In a bid to safeguard the left-out works of Le Corbusier, the Chandigarh Administration has taken an initiative by inaugurating the third souvenir shop and tourist information centre near the lake cafeteria at Sukhna Lake on Tuesday by the Adviser to the Administrator UT, Chandigarh. Mr. Pradip Mehra.
The new centre having two sections displaying and exhibiting the sourvenir and memorabilia in the form of life and works of Le Corbusier. The purpose of opening the shop was to popularize the architectural heritage and modern art of Chandigarh all over the world,’
The outlet has been set up by the Society for Tourism and Entertainment Promotion in Chandigarh (STEPS) and the Chandigarh Tourism which was an long overdue initiative to promote Chandigarh as a symbol of resurgent India.
At this newly set up shop consisting of all the 50-60 sourvenirs, foreign tourists and visitors to the city can explore souvenirs, depicting the works of Le Corbusier. The price of these souvenirs ranges between Rs 21 to Rs 7,000.
The shop houses all the souvenirs- inscribing various city based heritage buildings, manholes and monuments like open hand and reproducations of master architect, Le Corbusier drawings, paintings and photographs including memorabilia in the form of coffee mugs, cushion cover with cushion, table lamp, T-shirts, fridge magnet, colour reproductions of work of art of Corbusier with moulded frame, translit, animal handle mug, glass mug, beer mug, piggy bank, cup plate, key chain, plate, coaster PVC, tough glass plate, round paper weight, open hand (acrylic), pen stand, frame (acrylic) manhole (metal), open hand, table clock (metal), puzzle games, mouse pads, children’s fancy pencil boxes and other associated school accessories, greeting cards, post cards, batches, crystals.
Special features of these souvenirs are that they have different tourist spots of city printed on each of them .Sh. Pradip Mehra took a round and wrote in the visitors remarks, “I visited the Souvenir shop and information
centre at the lake this morning, I saw the various souvenirs on display at the shop. Many of them are the key products of rich imagination of our Home Secretary.”
The Souvenir shop also has a section of tourist information centre where city guides and brochures of various tourist spots are available mentioning the details. The visiting tourists can also ask for the tourists guides available at nominal rates. The board displaying the name and contact number of the guide will be put up shortly so that tourists can hire the guides on their own.
According to the Sh. Ram Niwas, Home-cum- Secretary, Tourism, Chandigarh, “In the coming weeks, the new Souvenir shop will have a provision of lending bicycle to the tourists. Chandigarh has been promoting cycle tourism so that visitors cum international and domestictourists from outside can come and enjoy cycling in the city and see the
beautiful city.Apart from enjoying boat ride at Sukhna, Tourists can pay some amount andride away on bi cycle.
A tourist information centre will provide visitors to a location with information on the area’s attractions, lodgings<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodging>,maps <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map>, and other items relevant to tourism. Recently Chandigarh Tourism and CITCO have printed new brochures on
prominent tourist places like Sukhna lake, Rock Garden, Chandigarh Greens and Gardens, Chandigarh Architecture, Chandigarh city guide.this shop willremain open from 10.00am -07.00pm
The first state-of-the-art souvenir shop, offering coloured reproductions of
works of art of legendary French architect Le Corbusier, was inaugurated in
October 2008 at the Le Corbusier Centre and Museum in Sector 19.