Damaged machines, fund crisis: Why Delhi’s open gyms pose an injury hazard

The MCD now plans to appoint a private company to take care of annual preventive maintenance, replacement and repair work under the project.

Nineteen-year-old Shivangi, a resident of east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar Phase 3, used to regularly visit the local neighbourhood park in B5 pocket early in the mornings for her daily exercise. However, her visits have reduced over the last few months to only brisk walks as the open gym equipment in the green space lies damaged and unattended.

Open gym equipment in poor condition at West Patel Nagar’s Rock Garden, in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT)

Shivangi, who goes by just one name, said that while the open gym was regularly used by locals, today only children play with

Over the last five years, such gyms have only grown in numbers. Today, 1,775 parks under the MCD and 342 parks under the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) are equipped with these open gyms (One line about when DDA started constructing open gyms). However, these units are in desperate need of maintenance with damaged exercise machines not being replaced for several months, residents said. This issue is more evident in east and north Delhi regions.

During a spot check at the park in Mayur Vihar, HT found that five units in the open gym were unusable while the nearby play equipment for children was also in shambles. Across the other end of east Delhi, at a park in Shahdara’s Jyoti Nagar near Loni roundabout, the situation was even worse. The entire set-up had been reduced to bare skeletal structures — key parts gone, damaged or toppled. Ramesh Sahu, 42, who was visiting the park with his wife and toddler, said that the equipment started to break around six months back and slowly the whole unit has been ruined.

“People are also not very careful while using them. But since these exercise equipment have moving parts, they are bound to be damaged at some point. There must be some provision for repairs,” Sahu said. Anubhav Jain, another resident, said that he has been complaining about the units over the last one month, but to no avail.

MCD has 15,226 parks spread over an area of 5,172 acres, out of which 1775 parks have such units. The civic body spends a total of ₹4.96 crore annually on the repair and maintenance of these units.

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These units largely comprise of warm-up units like tai chi spinner, pommel horse, air walker, standing twister, push up bar, multifunctional bench. There are also moderate exercise units like leg press, rover, cross-trainer, horse rider and heavy exercise units like chest press, various benches with dumbbells, sit-up board, parallel bars etc. The units at each open gym cost around ₹7-8 lakh and large number of them are sponsored by the MP/MLA local area development (LAD) funds.

Dheeraj Dubey, who heads the Walled City residents’ welfare association (RWA) said that the maintenance of open gyms is troublesome in their area as well. “We regularly visit Qudsia Bagh where many such equipment are lying damaged. We even pointed this problem out to the local deputy commissioner during the inspection, but no action was taken. We are told that there are no funds. It is easy to install these units but very difficult to maintain them,” he added.

Ashok Bhasin, president, North RWA said that the initiative was initially popular, but poor maintenance has turned these units into injury hazards. “The problem is more prevalent in north Delhi where there was fund crisis. After 2018-19, the repair and replacement work were not carried out defeating the very purpose of the project,” he added.

During the spot check, HT also found damaged equipment in neighbourhood parks of west Delhi’s Patel Nagar. The Patel Park in the area is especially popular among the local women. Pinki Sharma, a resident of Baba Farid Puri, said that the park is a popular spot for women from nearby areas of Anand Parbat and Baba Farid Puri.

“Children play while we can talk and stretch our muscles. Most of the units here were lying in pieces for over four months but they have been recently replaced. One equipment is still broken despite repairs,” Sharma said.

Anil Parasher, a resident of Seniors’ Hub in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka, said that there are damaged gym equipment in both MCD and DDA parks. “It is easier to install them using MP/MLA funds but there is no provision of repair and complaints go unheard,” he added.

However, open gyms at parks in south Delhi were in much better shape. A senior municipal official said that the erstwhile north and east MCD areas were facing severe financial crisis which may have impacted the maintenance work. “Besides financial woes, the community participation also plays a key role in better maintenance of these equipment. Guards or gardeners cannot be placed for watch and ward of all the sites and the local community plays a key role in it. In many sites, we have seen a much large participation of women in using this gym equipment which is a positive behavioural and societal change being observed,” the official said.

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When HT reached out for comments regarding the condition of these gyms, both MCD and DDA officials did not respond.

Meanwhile, the MCD now plans to appoint a private company to take care of annual preventive maintenance, replacement and repair work under the project. There are 139 replaceable parts that will come under the replacement contract. The civic body also plans to add equipment equivalent to 400 units every year to replace the old units and develop 20 fitness trails. MCD has estimated that it will need ₹8 crore in its budget for repair and maintenance of these equipment.