In the partition, Lahore was given to Pakistan. There arose the need to have a new capital for the areas of the Punjab that had fallen to India.In March, 1948, the Government of Punjab in consultation with the Government of India, approved a 114.59 sq.km. tract of land at the foot of the Shivalik Hills in Ambala district, as the site for the new capital. Le Corbusier, a well-known, French architect, was chosen to execute the project. India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, enthusiastically supported the project and took sustained interest in its execution. When he visited the project on April 2, 1952, he declared Let this be a new town symbolic of the freedom of India, unfettered by the traditions of the past, an expression of the nation's faith in the future....The new capital of Punjab will be christened as Chandigarh - a name symbolic of the valiant spirit of the Punjabis

Source - Punjab & Haryana High Court website