Chandigarh's wide roads leave British man wondering why India feels so different

British travel vlogger Jack Heaton said Chandigarh felt unlike other Indian cities during his India trip. He pointed to its planned layout, shared capital status and liveability as reasons it stood out.A British tourist shared his experience after exploring Chandigarh. (Photos: Instagram/jack_ofalljourneys)A British tourist arrived in Chandigarh expecting the usual Indian city chaos. What he found instead was wide roads, greenery and incredibly organised streets.Travel vlogger Jack Heaton recently shared an Instagram video titled “The strangest city in India”, where he explored Chandigarh’s distinctive urban design and compared it with the chaos he encountered in several other Indian cities during his travels.“This city is literally the opposite of India. You only have to look around and see why,” Heaton said in the video. He pointed out that Chandigarh was designed from scratch by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, with its roads, sectors and open spaces carefully planned.“Instead of the usual chaos, it's laid out in a huge grid with wide green spaces and a hefty dose of Brutalist buildings. Basically, someone actually sat down and planned the bloody thing,” he said. Having travelled through some of India’s biggest cities, Heaton said the contrast left him genuinely surprised.“After travelling through some of India's biggest cities, honestly, it feels bizarre. It's miles different, and everything is suspiciously organised,” he said. He also touched upon Chandigarh’s unusual political status. The city serves as the shared capital of Punjab and Haryana and is a Union territory in its own right.“And it's so popular that Punjab and Haryana couldn't agree on who could have the city. So the natural solution? It is the capital of both,” he quipped.In the caption accompanying his video, Heaton acknowledged that he had enjoyed travelling through India but said the country’s major cities could be “undeniably chaotic”. Chandigarh, therefore, came as something of a shock.“Mainly due to its planned efficient design and maintenance - wide roads, grid layout you won’t find in any other city make it instantly feel way more spacious, plus plenty of green spaces all whilst still holding 1.45 million people,” he wrote.Watch the video here:Heaton also noted that Chandigarh consistently ranks among India’s most liveable cities, though he had one major complaint: property prices.The video soon drew reactions online, with many Chandigarh residents agreeing with his observations, while others pointed out that the city’s planned layout is precisely what makes it stand apart from much of urban India. Some users also joked about his surprise at discovering a city that appears to have been designed with a ruler rather than chaos.- EndsPublished By: Srimoyee ChowdhuryPublished On: Aug 27, 2026 13:42 IST