Namma Metro: ‘A rail with a difference’

Namma Metro: ‘A rail with a difference’
Thursday May 17 2007 12:37 IST

BANGALORE: ‘Namma Metro’ will be a complete user-friendly service in every sense of the term, the Metro (BMRCL) promised the people.

V Madhu, Managing Director of BMRCL said, ‘‘We have taken adequate measures to ensure that the Metro project would be an accessible-to-all transport system, especially to the physically challenged.

We are co-ordinating with the NGO ActionAid and the Disability Department, who have sensitised the concept of accessibility for all groups of peoples, making Metro Rail more user friendly than other existing systems.’’

Victor Cordeiro of ActionAid Disability Unit said that a three-day Excess Audit Programme was organised to sensitise authorities on the issue of making public transport very helpful to all segments of the travelling public.

Victor said, ‘‘Universal design and accessibility are important factors in a transport system. Accessibility includes not only making transport services available to the physically challenged but also to senior citizens, pregnant women and children.’’

The difference will be visible all through the Metro service system. ‘‘From the gate of the Metro Rail Station to the ticket counter, right upto boarding of the train, alighting from it, including the seating arrangement for the physically challenged have all been planned in such a way that no section of the travelling public will feel left out.

Access to wheelchairs, auditory signals for the visually-challenged, electronic boards for the mute and hearing impaired are some of the aspects that have been added to make the Metro Rail a truly user-friendly service’’ Victor added.

Following rapid urbanisation, disability activists are working together with government and private companies, to ensure that the universal design and accessibility factor are being adapted to the public transport systems.

ActionAid is part of the Karnataka Initiative on Disability and Development - a network of organizations working on disability issues which organises training for differently abled activists, State officials and technical experts.