Maximum city is minimum disabled friendly

Mumbai has a reputation for being a city on the move. Despite the archeological site like dig-ins for the Metro work, getting anywhere in the city is still seen as less taxing on your nerves than most cities in the country. That is till you are wheelchair bound, because if you are, you’d do well to stay away from Mumbai’s public transport. Though the city’s public transport is trying to ramp up facilities for the disabled friendly in their vehicles and infrastructure, they are poorly maintained and fail to meet international standards.

The BEST has an entire fleet of low-floor buses, the suburban trains have a separate compartment for the disabled, stations have ramps and beepers, but many of these facilities have either been implemented in a half-hearted manner or simply become useless due to misuse.

The BEST introduced a complete fleet of low floor buses called Star Bus for the disabled to travel in them. These buses had foldable ramps and special space for two wheelchairs. There is also a contraction to secure wheelchairs, crutches, canes and walkers.

BEST officials said that the their service was one of the first public transport in the country to induct disabled friendly buses in the city. Even the new Volvo inducted two days ago has a facility to lower itself so that the disabled and senior citizens can get in with ease.

But given the city’s pace, the ramps remained unused as it takes time to unfold the ramp and put it back in place as the bus will hold up traffic while doing this on the city’s narrow roads.

The city’s railways too have tried to provide many facilities, but most of them are half-hearted and not user-friendly. “There are ramps on certain stations, but the new footover bridges and the skywalks that are coming up do not have ramps. There was big talk of elevators, but it has never materialised,” 54-year-old Shaswat Pathak from Mulund said. Pathak uses his specially converted scooter to travel and stays away from public transport.

The special coaches marked for the handicapped too are most of the times occupied by normal commuters. They are in the middle of the train and disabled passengers who take time to board the train fear getting in it as the train halts on an average for only 30 seconds at a station.

“The handicapped coach should be located either at the motorman’s side or the guard’s side so that they can monitor it and halt the train longer if required,” Ayesha Patel, another commuter said.

The most useful thing on the suburban railways are the beepers installed at stations. The beepers have been installed at the place where the handicapped compartment of the train is located. These help visually disabled to stand exactly at the spot where the compartment would appear, when the train arrives and halts.

“We are also fixing up chequered tiles along the edges of the platform and where the handicapped coach halts, so that visually impaired commuters are able to track it down with their canes,” a WR spokesperson said.