The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways informed the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that just 9.6% of over 1.3 lakh buses run by various State Road Transport Undertakings are disabled friendly.
The Ministry submitted that as of December 2017, only 12,894 of 1,34,434 buses under 52 State Road Transport Undertakings had provisions for the differently-abled. This falls short of the March 2016 Transport Ministry advisory to States and Union Territories to ensure that 10% government-owned public transport is accessible to persons with disabilities by March 2018.
The Ministry’s response came on a petition by Nipun Malhotra, who suffers from locomotor disability, challenging the Delhi government’s move to procure 2,000 standard floor buses at a cost of ₹300 crore.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar has been critical of the issue and has even halted the tender process to purchase standard floor buses for the Capital.
Accessibility problem
The Bench had remarked that allowing procurement of standard floor buses will lead to violation of the Fundamental Rights of the differently-abled, who will find it difficult to access such vehicles.
The Ministry also said that it had introduced a bus body code in 2014, laying down the facilities or provisions, including the number of seats, for the differently-abled in each bus type or model. Advocate Jai Dehadrai, appearing for Mr. Malhotra, had urged the Bench to stay the tender floated for procurement of the standard floor buses.
