Zirakpur

Zirakpur
Town
Zirakpur
Location in Punjab, India
Coordinates: 30°39′N 76°49′E / 30.65°N 76.82°E / 30.65; 76.82Coordinates: 30°39′N 76°49′E / 30.65°N 76.82°E / 30.65; 76.82
Country  India
State Punjab
District Mohali
Elevation 350 m (1,150 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Total 95,553
Languages
 • Official Punjabi
Time zone UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN 140603/140604/160104
Telephone code +91-1762-XXX XXX
Vehicle registration PB-65 and PB-70

Zirakpur is a satellite town, in Mohali District, Punjab, neighbouring Chandigarh in India. It is set on the foothills of Shivalik hills. It is part of the tehsil Dera Bassi. It comprises mainly the following areas near Chandigarh Airport including Baltana, Dhakoli, Lohgarh Pabhat, Bishanpura, Kishanpura, Nabha, Ramgarh Bhuda, Peer Muchalla and Dyalpura. This town is situated on the trijunction of national highways Himalayan Expressway, National Highway 5 (India) towards Shimla, Ambala Chandigarh Expressway towards Ambala and National Highway 7 (India) towards Patiala.

N.K.Sharma is the sitting MLA of Zirakpur.

Assessing cities on the basis of five key parameters — real estate, people, physical infrastructure, social infrastructure and business environment — a recent study concluded that India’s hottest emerging city is Chandigarh. India's first planned city got top ranking for the potential of its real estate market, physical infrastructure and business environment. While there is little space left within the city itself, Chandigarh scores because of the rapid development taking place on its outskirts, in areas like Panchkula, Mohali, Zirakpur and Dera Bassi on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway. Good connectivity, low operational costs and high disposable income also contributed to it being declared India’s hottest emerging city.

History

Zirakpur got its name from a small village, which is now a part of the present Zirakpur town. For long it remained a bunch of small villages located along the Chandigarh-Ambala highway. Then Chandigarh started to expand and these villages started to seem like a part of Chandigarh. Before the year 2000, the city had a population of less than twenty thousand. Soon a small village Baltana, which is a part of Zirakpur now, started having some population growth being near to Panchkula and Chandigarh. From 2004 ownwards the city's population started to increase rapidly, with booming property prices and the arrival of a large number of residential projects in the suburbs.

Recreation

Zirakpur, due to its proximity to Chandigarh and Panchkula is emerging the new hotspot for commercial development. Mega Stores like Best price, Metro and D mart cater to the growing day to day needs of the residents. A number of commercial buildings like Sushma Homework, Sushma Infinium are becoming very popular due to their strategic location on Delhi Chandigarh Highway and connectivity with three States Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. GBP Square, Cosmo Plaza, Golden Square Mall, NK Raksha Business Centre and many others on VIP Road are fast filling up with shops, restaurants, eateries and breweries. Zirakpur also has some of the biggest commercial projects in the tri-city region under construction like the Sushma Pristine, Chandigarh City Centre, GBP Centrum, Motia Workspace and Maya Magnesia. The fast pace of development is sure to put Zirakpur on the map. The Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park, also known as Chhat Bir Zoo locally, located in Chatt Village, is located on the road to Patiala.

Public transport

Zirakpur is well connected through air-conditioned and non air-conditioned local buses with Chandigarh, Panchkula and other neighboring areas. The inter-state buses going from Chandigarh to Delhi, Patiala, Rajpura, Bathinda and most of the northern cities of Haryana pass through Zirakpur. There is scope for improvement for connectivity to other neighboring cities. The Chandigarh Metro is also planned to connect Zirakpur with other parts of the region in second phase. Mass rapid transport system is the urgent requirement of the Zirakpur to decongest the ever-growing road traffic and jams. Zirakpur is located on the Ambala-Chandigarh highway and the Patiala-Shimla highway. At the intersection of these highways, a new flyover has been built mainly to cater to the Ambala-Chandigarh traffic. The bridge under area is poorly designed, as the road under the flyover turns to single lane while the same road before and after the flyover is two-lane, leading to a major chaos at times. The bridge was constructed by GMR constructions. There is no railway station of its own in Zirakpur. The nearest railway station is Chandigarh, which is around 8 km from here. For those traveling to the town by air, the nearest airport is situated in Chandigarh at around 5 km from here.

On 28 April 2016 Sukhbir Singh Badal, then deputy chief minister of Punjab announced Zirakpur to be developed as model city with all modern facilities and amenities.[2]

Wedding industry

Shivalik Hills seen from Zirakpur

Zirakpur is the 'Wedding capital' of the region. About 80% of the wedding banquets and resorts of the Chandigarh tri-city are located in Zirakpur. Wedding fireworks in the sky are a routine occasion in the town.

Civic amenities

The NHAI have made one of the longest flyovers of the regions passing through Zirakpur on Chandigarh Delhi highway. On the Zirakpur-Shimla highway, the railway over-bridge completed in 2011 has considerably improved the connectivity with Panchkula. The Four laning of Zirakpur-Patiala road has started. The Airport Road makes a trip to Mohali shorter and efficient, although recently the airport road has caved in at multiple locations due to poor construction quality leading to several fatal accidents[3].

The Municipal authorities Zirakpur have been under sharp criticism from the various resident associations of the area for not maintaining the roads and thereby leading to dangerous situations for the people commuting. The resident associations have requested the MLA, Mr. NK Sharma to start the road repair work with utmost urgency.[4]

The process to divide Zirakpur into various sectors like Chandigarh has been initiated, as per latest Municipal Council meeting.[5]

Health facilities

Zirakpur has a number of small and medium-sized hospitals catering to its primary health needs. For the specialized health requirements, the town depends on the super speciality institutes in the region like the GMCH-32 Chandigarh, the PGIMER Chandigarh, Dental College & Hospital, Amcare Hospital is a 110 Bedded Super Specialty hospital in Zirakpur. The ambulance facility is available by dialing "108", this facility is provided by Sewa Ambulance.

NGO

Zirakpur also has a NGO who works for the unprivileged Children. Name of the NGO is Sach Foundation and it provides free education in their computer center. Also have a Roti bank for providing Food to the needy one for free cost. Name of the Sach Foundation Founder is Sunita Sharma.

Education

Zirakpur has a business school named Fountainhead School of Business. It also has some private schools, including St Joan School in Lohgarh. A few engineering colleges are located close by, including Sri Sukhmani Group of Institutes,Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology, Swami Vivekanand College of Engineering, Gyan Sagar Medical College, Shaheed Udham Singh College of Engineering & Technology. Various schools in the town are Kendriya Vidhyalaya, K Area, G.S. MEMORIAL PUBLIC SR SEC SCHOOL SCHOOL (PSEB)Zirakpur Kendriya Vidyalya, High Ground, New Angle Public School (ICSE) Zirakpur. ARC computer institute zirakpur is imparting skills in tally,busy,accounts and gst for fulfilling needs of e computer accountants for growing business in zirakpur. ARC Spoken English & IELTS Institut ISO 9001 certified institute has also set up a branch at patiala chonk and is popular among medical,engineering students and professionals. Marvel Education Group is the key leader in English language courses. Highest 9 bands achieved by Marvel students in IELTS. Marvel education is the only Institute where 100% computerised PTE Coaching available.

Temples and Gurudwaras

Vishwakarma Temple, Sanatan Dharam Mandir, Gurudwara Naada Sahib, Gurudwara Lohgarh Sahib, Gurudwara Bauli Sahib, Shiv Mandir-Green City, Gurudwara nabha sahib, Gurudwara Singpura sahidaa.

Demographics

The Zirakpur Municipal Council has population of 95,553 of which 50,497 are males while 45,056 are females as per report released by Census India 2011. Population of Children with age of 0-6 is 12074 which is 12.64 % of total population of Zirakpur (M Cl). In Zirakpur Municipal Council, Female Sex Ratio is of 892 against state average of 895. Moreover Child Sex Ratio in Zirakpur is around 855 compared to Punjab state average of 846. Literacy rate of Zirakpur city is 88.30 % higher than state average of 75.84 %. In Zirakpur, Male literacy is around 91.36 % while female literacy rate is 84.90 %.

See also

References

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