Parks in several Salt Lake blocks are in urgent need of repairs as many have their boundary walls caved in, lights no longer work in some and many have broken furniture.
Parks and boulevards across the township are preferred hangout spots where children and elderly come to play or for a walk especially in the evenings.
But several of the parks are now overrun with weeds that makes it difficult for anyone to play or walk inside them.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s parks and lighting department is in charge of maintenance of the parks along with fitments like lights and children’s play furniture.
Many of the parks’ overall maintenance has taken a backseat.
In several blocks, residents said they were wary of sending their children out to play as they might get hurt while playing on the broken furniture.
They too avoid walking in the parks because of dysfunctional lights.
On Wednesday, The Telegraph went around several parks and found many of them in a bad shape.
In HB Block, a portion of the boundary wall of the park has caved in along with a lamp post. There long weeds on one end and a barren ground on the other portion of the park.
The neighbouring park at GD Block does not have a single ride that works.
See-saws, merry-go-rounds and swings either lie on their sides or have gotten completely overturned.
Inside the EE Block park, several trident lights are broken. Some lamp posts have electrical wires sticking out dangerously.
No children were spotted in the AD Block park despite the presence of colourful swings, slides and merry-go-rounds. Reason: most of them are broken.
“The children’s section of the park has at least 10 rides. All of them stopped working because of lack of maintenance,” Shyamal Ganguly, a resident of AD Block said.
The broken rusty bolts of a merry-go-round lies hidden under overgrown grass and anyone can trip over it and get injured.
The merry-go-round itself has overturned near the wall.
An official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s parks and lighting department said they had started repairs in several of the township’s parks from February.
“We have started revamping the parks across all three sectors and we will repair all the parks in phases,” the official said.
Krishna Chakraborty, the mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said all parks of Salt Lake would be revamped and restored.
“We will be revamping all the parks and intend to finish within four months,” said Chakraborty.
Scooterist hurt
A 47-year old man riding a scooter met with an accident on the Maa flyover on Saturday afternoon.
Sk Sazzad suffered injuries on his left leg and waist.
A resident of Beniapukur, Sk Sazzad lost control and fell on the carriageway with his scooter.
Police said Sk Sazzad was wearing a helmet.