Beautification of the Coimbatore Railway Junction has ended in eating into the two-wheeler/three-wheeler parking space originally earmarked for differently-abled persons.
While the Coimbatore junction is getting a makeover at an estimated cost of ₹ 50 lakh, the parking space earmarked near the ramp at the left side of the entrance of the main building has now been converted into car parking bay. This has denied the differently-abled persons the facility to reach near the entrance without any hassle.
A railway official on condition of anonymity said that the issue would be taken up to the highest level and sorted out.
S. Namburajan, State general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently-abled and Caregivers, said that as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD) Act 2016, it was mandatory for every organisation / establishment to provide easy accessibility to the differently-abled persons.
Though major railway stations/junctions had separate parking space for the differently-abled, the space was often misused allegedly by the officials from Railway Protection Force or the railway officials and the public.
Not only the parking space, the newly designed LHB coaches also did not have the facility for the differently abled. When this was brought to the knowledge of the General Manager of Southern Railway, he said that the Rail Coach Factory had been ordered to manufacture differently-abled-friendly coaches, Mr. Namburajan said.
