Bhubaneswar: The development authority here has introduced open-air gyms at 11 more parks. The facility is now available at 26 parks here.
Another such facility will shortly open at Prajnya Vihar Park at Baramunda and work on it is continuing at full swing. Similar facilities will also be introduced at one of the three smart parks currently under development at Saheed Nagar. The smart park, which will get the facility, is at the BDA-OMC Park.
With the completion of all these projects, the open gym facilities will be available for the citizens at as many as 28 parks in the city.
"In 2015, we had started with one such facility at Buddha Jayanti Park, which later became five in 2016 and extended to 15 parks in 2017," said BDA chief horticulturist A.N. Dhar.
Dhar said the open air gyms garner immense popularity since they were free and people could work out in a natural environment.
"We considered the popularity of such gyms in the parks and decided to increase their numbers accordingly. We now have 26 parks and we will shortly add two more," said the horticulturist.
Each set of outdoor fitness equipment at the gyms comprise an air walker, sit-up bench, air swing, twister, set back or glider, push and pull up chair, knee or hip raise on parallel bars, big shoulder wheel, spinner, bench with fixed dumbbell, bench with fixed weight lift and poles with fixed weight.
Sources said based on the size of the park, two different sets of equipment - either 12 or six -are fixed in the areas earmarked for the open-air gym. "It is a great move of the authorities to add more such facilities," said Veena Mehta, a resident of Patia.
The parks where the gyms were opened on Tuesday are Buxi Jagabandhu Park at Chandrasekharpur, Housing Colony Park at ward No. 8, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Park at Gandamunda, Mahatma Gandhi Park at Jayadev Vihar, K-8 Park at Kalinga Nagar, Joggers' Park at Chandrasekharpur, K-6 Park at Subudhipur, BDA Park at Rental Colony, Brit Colony Park at Badagad, N-5 BDA Park at IRC Village and VIP Area Park at ward No. 15.
