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.