| Gandhinagar | |
| State - District(s) | Gujarat - Gandhinagar |
| Coordinates | |
| Area - Elevation | 57 km² - 81 m |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| Population (2001) - Density | 195,891 - |
| Mayor | – |
| Codes - Postal - Telephone - Vehicle | - 382010 - + - GJ-18 |
Gandhinagar pronunciation (Gujarati: ગાંધીનગર, Hindi: गाँधीनगर) is the capital of Gujarat State, India. It is one out of the three planned cities of India. Located on the banks of the River Sabarmati, the city is the administrative centre of Gandhinagar District.
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In 1960, the Indian state of Bombay was split into two states — Maharashtra and Gujarat. Ahmedabad was selected to be the first capital of Gujarat. It was proposed that a new capital city be constructed for the state on the lines of the other two planned cities of India — Chandigarh and Bhubaneshwar. Initial plans were to rope in the renowned American architect Louis Kahn to build the city to rival Le Corbusier's Chandigarh. But the plans were cancelled due to pressure to make the new city an Indian enterprise.
So the charge of making the new city was given to Indian architects H. K. Mewada and Prakash M. Apte. Both had worked as apprentices during the construction of Chandigarh. The new city was constructed as per their plan and was named Gandhinagar after Mahatma Gandhi, a Gujarati himself. The capital was shifted from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar
The new city is spread on the banks of Sabarmati river. The main city is designed on the west bank of the river on 42.9 km² of land. The site is gently sloping, from north-east to south-west. Fine landscape lies along the west bank of the river Sabarmati.
Gandhinagar is perhaps the only new capital of a state in India that was designed and planned by Indian Town Planners - H.K. Mewada and Prakash M. Apte, then in service with the State Government. It is considered the ‘greenest’ new town in the world. Gandhinagar comprises thirty sectors. It is a highly structured city and has a highly ordered street grid - comprising blocks that are divided by two types of streets, similar to U.S. avenues and streets. Gandhinagar has "letter roads" (K, KH, G, GH, CH, CHH & JA) and "number roads" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7). The letter roads run parallel across the city perpendicular to the number roads. The number and letter roads intersect each other forming a grid; each block or square in the grid is given a sector number. Each intersection is marked by signal names such as CH1, CH2, CH3 or JA1,JA2.
On September 26, 2002, two gunmen entered the Hindu Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar and started firing indiscriminately at worshippers. After a 13-hour siege, National Security Guard commandos gunned them down. Nearly a hundred Hindu devotees were left wounded and thirty were killed, including eleven women and children. Letters found in the pockets of the attackers revealed that they belonged to the Tehrik-a-Khasas ("Movement for Revenge").
Gandhinagar is located at <ref>Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Gandhinagar</ref>. It has an average elevation of 81 metres (265 feet). The city sits on the banks of the River Sabarmati, in north-central Gujarat. It spans an area of 205 km² (79.15 square miles). The Sabarmati frequently dries up in the summer, leaving only a small stream of water.
There are three main seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. Aside from the monsoon season, the climate is dry. The weather is hot through the months of March to June when the maximum temperature stays in the range of 36 °C (97 °F) and 42 °C (108 °F), and the minimum in the range of 19 °C (66 °F) and 27 °C (81 °F). From November to February, the average maximum temperature is around 29 °C (85 °F), the average minimum is 14 °C (57 °F), and the climate is extremely dry. The southwest monsoon brings a humid climate from mid-June to mid-September.<ref>Gandhinagar Weather - Records and Averages. Yahoo! Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.</ref>
As of 2001 India censusGRIndia, Gandhinagar had a population of 195,891. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Gandhinagar has an average literacy rate of 78%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 82%, and female literacy is 73%. In Gandhinagar, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Schools in Gandhinagar are affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board. Under the 10+2+3 plan, students complete ten years of schooling, and then enroll for two years in Junior College, where they choose from one of three streams: Arts, Commerce or Science. This is followed by either a general degree course in a chosen field of study, or a professional degree course, such as law, engineering, medicine etc.
A large number of educational institutes are set up in Gandhinagar. This is due to a combination of two factors - the scarcity of land to expand campuses in Ahmedabad and the policy of the Gujarat government to establish a knowledge corridor in Gandhinagar.<ref>"Govt puts knowledge corridor on fast track", Indian Express. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.</ref> The National Institute of Fashion Technology and the National Institute of Design were given land to set up bigger campuses in Gandhinagar. The Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology was set up in the city in 2001 by Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector company. In 2003, the Gujarat National Law University was established in the city on the lines of the prestigious National Law School of India University, Bangalore.
The Institute for Plasma Research is the foremost scientific research organisation in Gandhinagar. The institute was shifted to its present day campus in Gandhinagar in 1998 and is a leading plasma physics research centre in India.
The city of Gandhinagar highly lacks in the matters of entertainment. But, there are some places which one can definitely visit in the city:
The metropolitan area of Ahmedabad is located 30 km from Gandhinagar. It has an entertainment hub on the Sarkhej Gandhinagar Highway or SG Road.
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