The Times of India   03.08.2012

Municipal Corporation’s fountains not a thing of beauty

CHANDIGARH: Fountains in the city are being built on the whims of councillors, without getting the concept approved by architects. So if you find that the fountain in your area is not attractive, or worse is an eyesore, you'll know where to lay the blame.

Local residents feel the municipal corporation should rope in experts for designing and building fountains. The municipal corporation's engineering department admits all it does is to check the basic aesthetics of the project. The civic body is spending lakhs of rupees on these fountains in the city but the architectural design is not given much thought. Fountains are being constructed purely on the basis of the demand of area councillors.

In most cases, it is the area councillor who conceptualizes the water feature and all that the MC does is to work out the economics and begin work without taking the services of an architect. While a volcano-shaped water feature has been installed in Sector 35 at a cost of Rs 15 lakh, a musical fountain was installed in Sector 15 that was built at a cost of over Rs 50 lakh. On Wednesday mayor Raja Bala Malik inaugurated a fountain in Sector 51 worth Rs 17 lakh.

Councillor Harjinder Kaur said that she had sent the demand about the need for a fountain in the area to the MC and it was built in accordance with the idea given by her.

Councillor Harphool Chander Kalian said that the fountain which was inaugurated on August 1 was his brainchild. Ramesh Sharma, a resident of Sector 22 said it is strange that one does not take architectural approval for these water features in a planned city like Chandigarh. V B Khanna, a resident of Sector 19 said that the authorities concerned are obviously not doing a good job as some fountains are a real eyesore.

R C Diwan, superintending engineer of the public health department in the MC said that the councillors give their demand for a fountain following which fountains are installed. He said that architects are not being consulted and all that they look into is the feasibility of having these fountains in the area concerned.