Has your neighbourhood park been recently facilitated with an open-air gym? But is it on a kuchcha, or non-concretised, surface? If yes, you should certainly check with the authorities — it’s a violation of DDA provisions. It is mandatory for the equipment to be fixed on a fully concrete surface.
City Spidey traces the concept of open-air gyms for neighbourhood parks introduced by DDA in 2015.
The concept, to be implemented by DDA’s civil department, was first introduced in a Sector 10 DDA park in Dwarka. Close on its heels, DDA set up open-air gyms in three of its parks — Japanese Park in Rohini, Sanjay Lake in Trilokpuri near Mayur Vihar Phase I and Hauz Khas District Park.
According to a DDA official, later, the number of parks was increased to 50 — and now, it’s 100. Nearly 900 huge and big-sized parks are maintained by DDA, for which it spends about Rs 300 crore a year.
The civil department is responsible for the maintenance of the parks.
Shivdhani Ram, executive engineer DDA (civil, north-east zone), said, “Development is being carried out under the civil department. For equipment, a tender was issued to a Noida-based private company.”
“The service provider — in this case, the private company — will maintain the equipment for a period of five years. However, maintenance, if needed, will be carried out under the supervision of the civil department,” replied SN Singh, a senior DDA official.
So who will take care of the non-concretised areas in parks for open gyms? What's the point of having these gyms if residents can't even use them in the monsoons?
DDA, are you listening?