New Town: If sprinting to catch buses that won't stop where they should wasn't enough exercise already, commuters in New Town can work out while they wait for one to come along.

Outdoor fitness equipment is being installed across bus stops in the township to keep commuters healthily busy on the go.

A leg-press machine where two persons can work out simultaneously has already been installed at the Nazrul Tirtha bus stop. The pedals on either side are connected to resistance bands inside the machine to give anyone a good workout without going to a gym.

Hidco, which builds and maintains infrastructure in New Town, aims to install exercise equipment at 24 places, including the New Town bus stop, the one in front of City Centre 2 and the Rabindra Tirtha bus stop, among others.

"We intend to cover these places over the next couple of months," a Hidco official said.

No two machines at the bus stops will be alike. The equipment will include parallel bars, standing waist twisters and shoulder-press machines.

According to the official, a variety of fitness equipment at bus stops will be a boon for people so caught up in the hurly-burly of life that they don't work out or play a sport regularly. Fitness equipment at bus stops could help these people get fitter without having to set aside time for a daily fitness regimen, he said.

Debashis Sen, the managing director of Hidco, said he had seen fitness equipment in public places during a visit to Incheon in South Korea. "The idea stuck with me, and I thought that we could have them in New Town as well," he told Metro.

The equipment chosen for bus stops are of the kind that commuters can use for a short workout without any expert guidance.

Outdoor fitness equipment at bus stops is a new concept, although open-air gyms are growing in popularity across the world. Such gyms are already there in places like Chandigarh, Mysore, Gurgaon and even smaller cities like Guwahati and Tiruchirappalli.

Various studies have extrapolated that exercising outdoors brings additional health benefits such as helping lower blood pressure and stress levels, the Hidco boss said.

Asked why bus stops and not parks had been chosen for the New Town project, Sen said the objective was to benefit those who visit the township daily for work. "We already have a few parks with fitness equipment. We wanted to give an opportunity to commuters to do something while they wait for transport."

While some New Town residents are upbeat about the idea, there is also scepticism. Suman Dey, who lives in Action Area I, described it as "a great initiative".

But Chandrima Mullick, another resident of the township, said the fitness equipment should have been installed in parks for these to be of any use.