Rail Budget 2013: More comfort for differently-abled, elderly passengers

Union Minister for Railways Pawan Kumar Bansal today proposed the installation of 179 escalators and 400 lifts at A- 1 and other major stations to provide differently-abled and elderly railway passengers with comfort to board trains and exit from stations. “… India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the rights of the disabled. We are conscious of our responsibility under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” Bansal said during his Rail Budget speech in Parliament.[caption id=“attachment_640291” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] (L) Union Minister for Railways Pawan Kumar Bansal. Image courtesy PIB [/caption] As per the Budget proposal, the railways will also affix Braille stickers indicating the layout of coaches including toilets, provision of wheel chairs and battery operated vehicles at more stations and making coaches wheel-chair friendly. “In order to provide an employment avenue to the disabled people, I propose to reserve a specified number of JTBS (Jansadharan Ticket booking Sevak) for them, keeping in view the fact that the PCOs at stations have become largely redundant after the mobile revolution in India,” the minister said.