3 new parks and 40 gyms to be developed in Visakhapatnam

Three public parks are on the list of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation(GVMC) for construction in various zones located in the city. The parks would be developed with about Rs 7 crores.

To be located in the heart of Visakhapatnam, Swatantra Nagar Park in Zone I, Satyanagar Park in Zone VI and HB Colony Park in Gajuwaka Zone would comprise of a better leisure and bigger area for the residents.

Swatantra Nagar Park’s bidder has been finalised while the other two are at the tender stage.

The officials would be working on plans of including play areas, gardens, walkways, multi-utility play equipment, etc. The development and maintenance responsibilities would be under GVMC.

GVMC Commissioner, M Hari Narayanan, said, “All the city-level parks, maintained by either the GVMC or Vuda, are limited to the core of the city. Now, we will develop three parks in the suburbs.”

“We want to take the initiative of open gyms, established at 15 public places, further given the good response from the public. Tenders have been called to set up open gyms at 40 more places in the city,” said Narayanan.

Assistant director of horticulture (GVMC), M Damodara Rao, mentioned “Apart from the infrastructure, the parks will have open gyms and courts for basketball, volleyball, badminton and others. Swatantra Nagar Park will also have an amphitheatre.”

In the 2017-18 financial year, GVMC has developed 13 colony parks partnering with private sectors. The officials are looking forward to setting up another 26 this financial year, where the Resident Welfare Associations would be bearing one-third of the expenditure.

Credits: Times of India