Sector 17 Plaza

Sector 17 Plaza is the car-free city centre of Chandigarh, a grid of low concrete buildings holding shops, banks and offices around wide open squares. Le Corbusier planned it as the commercial and social heart of the new capital, with the city's sectors numbered around it.

Sector 17 Plaza was built in the 1950s and 1960s, in the same concrete language as the Capitol Complex, with deep verandas to shade shoppers. Newer malls have opened on the city's edges, but Sector 17 is still the main place Chandigarh comes to shop, stroll and meet, and the plaza fills in the evening. Each sector of Chandigarh is a self-contained neighbourhood of roughly the same size, with its own market, and Sector 17 is the clearest surviving picture of how Le Corbusier meant the whole city to work.

What to see

• The central squares and the musical fountain
• Shaded concrete verandas lined with clothing and shoe shops
• Bookshops, sweet shops and cafes around the plaza
• Street performers and families on weekend evenings
• The uniform facades that follow Le Corbusier's design rules

What to wear

Sector 17 Plaza is a public shopping area with no dress code; everyday light clothing is fine. Winter evenings in December and January are cold, so bring a jacket. Wear comfortable shoes for walking the plaza. Chandigarh sits in Punjabi country, and around the city you will see women in salwar kameez, often with a bright phulkari embroidered dupatta, and Sikh men in neatly tied turbans. Shops here sell phulkari dupattas and Punjabi juttis, the embroidered leather slippers of the region.

Local food to try

Chandigarh eats like Punjab: chole bhature for breakfast, Amritsari kulcha, dal makhani, butter chicken and tall glasses of lassi, with sarson da saag and makki di roti in winter. Sector 17 has sweet shops for pinni and barfi, cafes and several Punjabi restaurants, and chaat and kulfi stalls appear in the evening. Vegetarian options are everywhere, and halal meat is served at some restaurants nearby.

Good to know

• Best from October to March; evenings are the liveliest
• The plaza is open daily; many shops open around 10am and close around 9pm
• Free to walk around
• Allow one to two hours
• In the centre of Chandigarh, about 7 km from the railway station and beside the Sector 17 bus terminal
• Bargaining is not usual in the fixed-price shops

Nearby places

The Zakir Hussain Rose Garden is across the road in Sector 16, and Elante Mall is a short drive south-east. The Capitol Complex and the Rock Garden are about 4 km north.