The High Court here on Tuesday asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to draw inspiration from the London tube to make its stations differently abled-friendly.
Step-free access
Drawing the DMRC’s attention to how London’s Department for Transport had made access to and from its tube stations “step-free”, a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar asked the Metro to try and replicate it here.
The court also noted that London’s Department for Transport had ensured step-free access to buses and cabs, while the Delhi government has not been able to provide 10,000 low-floor buses in the past 20 years. The Bench asked the DMRC to “examine [the] scheme in place in London and other parts of the world to ensure wheelchair access and methods to avoid stairs”.
On the issue of low-floor buses, the court said apart from being more accessible to the differently abled, such vehicles are also environment friendly.
The Bench was hearing a petition by 29-year-old Nipun Malhotra, who suffers from locomotor disability, claiming that most public facilities in the Capital are not differently abled-friendly. In the plea filed through advocate Jai Dehadrai, Mr. Malhotra has sought directions to make the Capital’s roads, government offices and public transport friendly for the differently abled.
On the issue of making all structures in the Capital differently abled friendly, the Delhi government, the Centre, the DDA and other municipal bodies told the court that they have carried out or are in the process of carrying out an audit of how differently abled friendly their respective buildings are.
The court told the authorities to expeditiously take steps to remove the deficiencies revealed by the audits and file their respective status reports before the next date of hearing on August 21.
