To help visually challenged people, second class reserved coaches of the Chennai-New Delhi Tamil Nadu Express now feature Braille signage.
This is a first-of-its-kind step by Southern Railway. All the 13 three-tier second class coaches in each of the four rakes of Tamil Nadu Express (totally 52 coaches) have now been fixed with Braille signage, Southern Railway officials told The Hindu.
Braille signage on coaches was announced in the railway Budget of 2013-14, officials said.
The signage on Tamil Nadu Express has been fixed on all the four coach entry points and also near the berths.
“Visually challenged passengers can touch the signs and locate their berth number without anybody’s help,” officials said. In addition, Braille signage indicating the location of alarm chains and emergency windows has also been fixed. The signage was fixed at the Train Care Centre, Basin Bridge, last month during regular maintenance of the rakes. The cost of installing the pre-printed signage, issued by suppliers from New Delhi and authorised by Research Designs and Standards Organisation, Lucknow, works out to about Rs. 14,000 per coach.
Reservation charts
While welcoming this as a fine initiative, M. Nagarajan, president, College Students and Graduate Association of the Blind, said the railway administration should make arrangements to have Braille-enabled reservation charts. Further, there should be a signage to indicate the coach numbers too.
Officials said that one coach of the New Delhi-Puri (Odisha) Purushottam Express was visually challenged-friendly, and more recently, the Mysuru-Varanasi Express had Braille signage on all its coaches.
