HEART?S CONTENT: The treadmills with television screens. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Now, burn those killer calories as you watch a gripping ODI, catch your favourite K-soap on TV or even the latest blockbuster on DVD.

Thanks to perishing parks and potholed paths, Calcutta has been fast becoming treadmill town, with more and more people opting for a cardiovascular workout at home, rather than venturing out for a morning walk. The domestic user now has the option of an LCD TV screen on the treadmill, to bring channel cheer to the running routine.

The new-generation TV treadmills, with built-in interactive LCD screens ? from seven to 21 inches ? with remote control and over 100 satellite channels to choose from, plus a DVD option, are the latest rack rage in home fitness equipment, a category with a six-to-12-month obsolescence cycle.

?Running on the treadmill has been one of the most popular forms of cardiovascular exercise in Calcutta, thanks to shrinking outdoor space. The response to the TV treadmill has been phenomenal, since unlike previously, when you kept looking at the clocked time, those 20 minutes simply fly now as you are watching your favourite TV programme along with it,? says Gagan Sachdev of BodyLine Sports.

The fitness equipment store on Ballygunge Circular Road has been ?first off the blocks? to get the TV treadmills to Calcutta and the city is simply lapping them up. ?The whole concept of working out has changed for me. Now, I don?t miss even a day, running on the treadmill as I catch the breakfast news,' says M.K. Mata of Sarat Bose Road, who recently bought a TV treadmill.

For Ketan Sood, who works for a Sector V software firm and follows the English Premier League on cable TV, exercising has become ?so much more interesting now, as I get really charged up when I see the footballers haring up and down the pitch at a blistering pace?.

There are six different models based on European technology, and starting at Rs 60,000, prices go up to Rs 1.5 lakh. The TVs have in-built panels where one can monitor parameters like time, speed, distance covered and calories burnt, besides features like auto incline and air-step cushion deck.

Not just young couples and executives in the new-age service sectors, even middle-aged homemakers are flipping for the TV treadmill when they see it. Many coming in with a budget of Rs 45,000-50,000 are stretching the spend to take home an LCD model, according to Sachdev, the ?sole supplier? of TV treadmills in the city.

?Initially, there was a perception that motorised treadmills are only for the rich and famous. Since two years ago, even the middle-class started going for the motorised versions and from last year, we saw a paradigm shift to motorised, prompted by easy EMIs and plastic money,? says Sachdev, the largest importer of treadmills in Calcutta.