Shalimar Bagh

Shalimar Bagh (Hindi: शालीमार बाग़, Urdu: شالیمار باغ) is a residential colony in North West Delhi, India.

History

The name "Shalimar Bagh" comes from a garden located in Lahore,Pakistan since the time of the Mughal Empire. The garden, once known as "Aizzabad-Bagh", was the site of the coronation of Aurangzeb on July 31 1658 [ [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=019ADDOR0004807U00000000 Shalimar Gardens] British Library.] . Originally, the garden contained a palace called Sheesh Mahal.

Shah Jahan used this palace as a halting place on his royal trips to Kashmir, Punjab or Lahore. The garden was typically laid in a Mughal style and had a very good water supply and drainage system. The whole palace was decorated with colorful floral paintings, some of which can be seen even today on the outer walls of the room adjacent to the fountain tank.

Renowned for its beauty, the garden and the palace was the favourite country house of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. It was here that Aurangzeb crowned himself as the next Emperor of the Mughal Empire, in 1658 AD. During the British rule, Sir David Ochterlony and Lord Metcalfe used the garden as their summer lodge. At present, the beautiful Sheesh Mahal is in a serious state of neglect. There are numerous small wells and a ruined fountain network. The beautiful garden has been replaced by a simple park, which is now used by the local population for their recreational activities. However, traces of the Mughal garden can still be seen there in some parts of the park. One of the main attractions for visitors to the park is the variety of fruit trees and wild flowers.

General information

Shalimar Bagh can be considered as a semi-posh locality. Two new shopping malls, DT City Center and IndiaBulls Mega Mart have recently come up in the area which are bound to improve the overall standing of the area in neighbourhoods.

Shalimar Bagh consists of four blocks A, B, C and D, each of which contains several community pockets. Schools include Jaspal Kaur Public School, Modern Public School, Prabhu Dayal Public School and DAV Public School, as well as several government run schools. Besides this, Fortis, a leading name in healthcare, is also constructing a super-speciality, 500 bed hospital near Kela Godown. Also, Shalimar Club has been operational for quite some time. The area has two petrol pumps. Shalimar Bagh is surrounded by two urbanised villages, Shalamar Gaon on East, and SinglePur village on West; which serve its labourer-needs.

The colony has a legislative assembly seat of its own. As of 2008, the seat is held by BJP member and Shalimar Bagh resident Ravinder Bansal. The constituency number of Shalimar Bagh is 19 in the local Delhi Assembly. Shalimar Bagh is also a part of Outer Delhi Parliamentary constituency. The current Member of Parliament (MP) is Sajjan Kumar of Indian National Congress.

The area lies on Inner Ring Road and is serviced by Delhi Transport Corporation and Mudrika Seva buses. It is within a few minutes drive of a Metro Rail station (Netaji Subhash Place). The area is now well served by feeder bus services of Delhi Metro. The metro station lies on Red Line (Delhi Metro).

The colony's post code, which it shares with adjacent residential colony Pitam Pura, is 110088. The locality contains a Police Station and a Post Office of its own. The area is a transit point for Haider Pur water plant and so has 24-hour water supply under normal circumstances.

References

External links

* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/g_c/sets/72157603883078621/ Images of Historic structures within Mughal Shalimar Gardens]