Mumbai: All Dadar pool slots booked in a few hours

Membership for the pool at Shivaji Park, Dadar was full on the day the registration started. File pic

The BMC has made the process of registration for its swimming pools online and around 50 per cent of the seats are currently vacant. The online registration process started last week to make it accessible and easier for more citizens. Currently, except for the pool at Dadar, the other three have more than half the slots vacant.

The registration for the Dadar pool started on August 25 and all the 2,000 seats were booked on the same day. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has swimming pools at Shivaji Park, Kandivli, Dahisar, Chembur and Ghatkopar, of which the Ghatkopar one has been closed since 2016 after leakage issue. The pool will undergo redevelopment and open after two-three years.

Kishor Gandhi, dy municipal commissioner

As the demand for swimming pool memberships rises ahead of October due to the heat, the BMC introduced the online registration system to bring in transparency and fill the 6,000 memberships in all four pools.

The online membership of Dahisar swimming pool started on August 23 and till Thursday only 369 citizens have enrolled for the same. The registration for Kandivli and Chembur pools started on August 24 and so far 365 and 701 online forms have been submitted, respectively.

The BMC has also increased the slot time for each member from 45 minutes to one hour. File pic

"Dadar swimming pool online registration was full within hours while Dahisar, Kandivli, and Chembur pools are waiting for swimmers. We have introduced an online system and people can even see how many members are at the swimming pool so that they can opt to come or not at that time," said an official from the BMC.

"After the opening of online registration, Dadar swimming pool memberships were closed within a few hours. But there is still membership available at the other three pools out of which two are Olympic-sized. In addition to that two more pools will be open by October," said Kishor Gandhi, deputy municipal commissioner and in-charge of swimming pools.

Earlier the members got a 45-minute slot, which has now been increased to one hour and members can avail the facility during any hour of the day. All the process of entry and exit will be online and if any member takes more than an hour, then the time will be subtracted from their annual hours of access.

As per BMC's existence fee structure, olympic-sized swimming pools at Shivaji Park, Chembur and Kandivli have yearly fee of R10,100 while Dahisar has a yearly fee of Rs 8,000.

The BMC started construction of seven new pools in Worli Hill Reservoir, Chacha Nehru Garden in Malad, Indira Gandhi Entertainment Park in Andheri West, Kondivita in Andheri East, Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Govandi, Gyandhara Garden in Dahisar. Of these, the Dahisar and Malad pools may open within the next two months.