Gurugram civic body to add more than 40 new open air gyms by the end of this year

After getting a positive feedback from residents, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is set to add 40 to 45 more open air gyms in the city. Officials, on Thursday, said that a new tender for this purpose has been floated.

In the pilot phase from April onwards, 45 such gyms were installed in MCG’s 35 wards, each having equipment such as airwalker, rowing machine, air swings, elliptical exercise machine and chest and leg press machines.

MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav said that the feedback from residents was positive and a list of RWAs had submitted official requests for developing open air gyms in their parks. “Hence, we decided to float a tender for more open air gyms,” Yadav said.

Ajay Nirala, executive engineer, MCG, said e-tenders for open air gyms have been floated in MCG’s official website. Nirala said, depending on the final bid and price negotiations, 40-45 open air gyms will be installed in the second phase.

“The tender involves provisions for the supply of 250 gym equipment and the process of selection of concessionaire and contract agreements will take another two weeks to conclude,” Nirala said.

Nirala said unlike the previous process where six equipment were installed in each of the 45 parks, “in the second phase, equipment will be installed depending on the size of the parks and they will vary from one park to the other.”

Nirala said the total budget for setting up the open air gyms has been pegged at ₹99 lakh and the type of equipment will remain the same. He confirmed that 40-45 new gyms will be installed this year.

The main reason why the open air gyms could be built so successfully at community parks is that the work was done in coordination with local residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) and the onus of maintenance was also on them.

MCG had built two open-air gyms on a vacant civic land at Bhagwan Mahaveer Marg and near Ramada Hotel, during the Green Raahgiri drive in February 2016.

However, soon after their launch, the equipment were broken and stolen by miscreants in some places.