Much-hyped open-air gyms defunct

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 29

Once a health-enthusiast puller, the open-air gyms in a majority of the public parks across the city are in poor state. Broken equipment are a disappointment to morning and evening walkers who come to these parks frequently to exercise. Equipment have either been damaged or stolen by miscreants. Several equipment are rusting in the absence of care by the authorities.

With an aim to create a healthy Karnal city, the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Karnal Smart City Ltd, (KSCL), set up around 120 open air gyms out of total 185 small and big parks at the cost of around Rs 6.5 crore, but most of them are of no use to the public due to pathetic condition. The first open-air gym was installed in the city in 2016, said an official.

Residents allege that the authorities are showing no interest in maintaining these gyms. “Atal Park is the largest park of the city and open air gym is also set up here, but most of the equipment of this gym are defunct. Seats and foot stands of various equipment are missing for the past several months, but nobody is here to look after the equipment even after reminding the authorities,” said Rishipal Arya, a resident of Raghunath Nagar.

The situation is almost the same in Karan Park near the Manav Sewa Sangh as the equipment are waiting to be repaired. “A large number of health conscious people visit this park daily, but due to non-maintenance of the gym, they are not getting the benefits of the open-air gym,” said Amit Ahuja, a resident of the city.

Gym equipment are in bad shape at Shaktipuram Park, Sector 7 Park, Sector 6 Park, Sector 13 parks, and other parks of the city. “The concept of open-air gym was excellent to attract people to do exercise everyday in the open, but most of the gyms in the city are lying non-functional due to poor upkeep. These are machines and require regular service and maintenance, but the authorities have been looking the other way,” said Malak Singh, a resident of Shaktipuram.

Vir Vikram Kumar, councillor, Ward10, said four open-air gyms were in poor condition and he had raised the issue with the authorities to get it repaired. “We demand the authorities should keep a vigil on the maintenance of the equipment,” he added.

Officials of the KMC say that the defect liability period of most of the gyms has been completed. Monika Sharma, XEN, KMC, said the KMC had hired agencies which had the responsibility of replacing or repairing the equipment under the defect liability period. Several equipment were repaired or replaced by the agency but now the defect liability period of most of the gyms is completed.

Dr Manoj Kumar, Commissioner, said those gyms which were under the defect liability period would be repaired by the agencies and those that were not in the defect liability period would be repaired by the KMC.