Gurugram admin plans to turn parking lots to playing zones

Gurugram: In a joint project with PepsiCo India, the Gurugram district administration has decided to transform major parking areas, including defunct ones and those less used, into playing zones during non-peak hour, said officials on Monday.

This initiative aims to provide children with spaces to play outdoor games, said the officials, adding that the first model has been made at the Mini Secretariat in Sector 11 under a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project. There are over 500 parking grounds in Gurugram and mostly are not developed and unattended, added the officials.

Gurugram deputy commissioner (DC) Nishant Kumar Yadav said that they took the initiative due to a lack of accessible sports grounds in the district, which lead to children playing on arterial and main roads around residential areas. “We have identified five such locations so far, including the parking areas behind the Mini Secretariat, the advocates’ parking in Rajeev Chowk, parking of market in Sector 29, Leisure Valley parking, and the parking opposite Hyundai Motor India Ltd (Headquarters).The other parking zones will be identified for developing small playgrounds, catering to sports such as basketball and football, with the help of private companies and their CSR funds,” Yadav added.

The DC said that these facilities will be made available during morning and evening hours when the parking areas are not in use. “Temporary sports turfs and other equipments will be provided by private firms at these designated sites. This decision was taken to motivate children to play sports amid the increasing urbanisation that is leading to shrinking playing areas, which this initiative aims to address creatively by utilising existing infrastructure. Based on public interest, we plan to expand to other areas in future. Even resident welfare associations (RWAs) can become involved in planning and providing such sites for children,” he added. However, residents emphasised that the idea is only good if these areas are regularly maintained and attended by designated staffs.

Sector 46 RWA president Rajkumar Yadav said that this will help the children get proper spaces to play. “This will not only utilise unused spaces but also provide children and adults with much-needed areas to play and stay active. The only challenge is that no will step out during peak summers, but during winters, this will be the go to place,” he said.

Former ward 34 councillor Rama Rani Rathee reiterated Rajkumar Yadav’s notion on how urbanisation has made it difficult for children to find safe spaces to play. “It will help keep our children engaged in healthy activities and away from devices. We also plan to hire some coaches to provide basic training to children for keeping them occupied during evening,” she said.