MCG to build open-air gyms in all city parks measuring more than an acre

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is planning to equip at least half of the city’s parks with open-air gyms, said officials on Wednesday

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is planning to equip at least half of the city’s parks with open-air gyms, said officials on Wednesday.

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Devender Bhadana, executive engineer, MCG, said the civic body has set a target of establishing open-air gyms in every park in the city that is more than an acre in size.

“There are more than 400 parks in the city that measure more than one acre — nearly half of the total number of parks. We are making estimates for the project. The estimates will not only account for the types of equipment used in open-air gyms but also for general play equipment, benches, and other additional features,” said Bhadana.

There are at least 808 parks in the city, of which 483 are maintained by the residents’ welfare associations (RWAs), while 325 by the MCG.

Bhadana further said that the rationale behind building open-air gyms in parks measuring above one acre is to ensure there is adequate space for accommodating them alongside green belts, benches, footpaths, and other recreational facilities.

On Tuesday, the MCG’s finance and contract committee (F&CC) approved a tender for constructing open-air gyms across parks in Ward 23 for a cumulative cost of ₹1.50 crore.

Earlier in 2019, MCG officials had announced that they are setting a target of building one open-air gym in every residential sector of the city. However, officials said that they realised that this approach would only cover a fraction of the city. As such, they decided to change their strategy.

“There are around 60 residential sectors in the city that come under the jurisdiction of the MCG. We realised that by building 60 open-air gyms, only a small fraction of the residents would be covered. Hence, we decided to change our strategy and cover half of the city’s total number of parks,” said a senior MCG official privy to the matter.

The first open-air gyms in the city were constructed on Bhagwan Mahaveer Marg and St Thomas during the MCG’s green Raahgiri initiative in February 2016. However, no such facilities were added over the next two years.

It was re-launched on a large scale from April 2018 onwards, with the first such facility being built at a park in Sector 22. Subsequently, 45 open-air gyms were set up across the city over the course of the next two years.

An open-air gym has exercise equipment such as air swings, elliptical exercise machine, air walker, rowing machine, chest and leg press machines, and suchlike.