Sectors. Chandigarh, read room by room Open in the atlas

North-east edge · landmark

Sukhna Lake

A man-made lake kept deliberately still: no motorboats on the water, no traffic on the dam you walk along.

Where it sits in the city
A fall evening, September or October, almost dark. The first crisp winter wind coming in after months of heat. The instrumental of “Na Tum Jaano Na Hum” started playing somewhere in the background. Divine. One of my core memories. It’s the end point of my favourite gedi.Anirudh · the owner’s memory

Then & now

Then
Created 1958 by damming the seasonal Sukhna Choe; the feeder stream was diverted away in 1974 to fight silt.
Who
Conceived by Le Corbusier with the chief engineer P.L. Verma.
Before
A seasonal hill stream off the Shivaliks. The roof of the dam became the promenade.

The OG move

Corbusier set two rules to keep it calm, and the Edict still holds them: no motorboats, and no vehicles on the bund. The ritual is the dawn walk on the dam, then kulhad chai. A 2.17 km rowing channel was cut in 1989 for the Asian championships.

A fact that reframes it

In 2020 the Punjab and Haryana High Court declared Sukhna a legal person, a living entity with rights; the ruling’s demolition orders were soon stayed and the case is still in the courts. The beloved lake is not natural and is silting up; the stream that made it was diverted away in 1974, and it holds little more than half its original water.

Open in the interactive atlas → Back to the map
Sources (4)
  1. Man-made, created 1958 by damming the Sukhna Choe; designed by Le Corbusier with chief engineer P.L. Verma
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhna_Lake
  2. Two rules: no motorboats, no vehicles on the dam/promenade (also in the Edict of Chandigarh)
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhna_Lake; chandigarh.gov.in/know-chandigarh/edict-of-chandigarh
  3. Feeder Choe diverted in 1974 against siltation; lake now ~56% of original capacity; 2.17 km rowing channel built 1989
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhna_Lake
  4. High Court declared Sukhna a legal person (2 March 2020)
    ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/sukhna-lake-case/; india.mongabay.com 2020