The Western Railway has embarked on one of its biggest projects worth Rs 4.8 crore to turn suburban railway stations disabled-friendly.
The first phase of stations to see the change will be between Churchgate and Khar.
This would mean creating special amenities for the disabled at these stations, including tactile paving with warning floor material, disabled toilets with special grab bars, low-height ticket booking windows, ramps on foot overbridges, low-level water taps that can accommodate wheel chairs.
“We have invited tenders and the work will be completed in four months. We will closely monitor the so that they prove to be helpful to the disabled,” a senior official said.
Experts said there is also a need to find a creative solution to the problem of the gap between the platforms and the train coaches, which is proving to be a risk for the disabled.
IIT expert Sudhir Badami, a member of the committee constituted by the Bombay High Court for making the city’s railways friendly towards persons with disability, said the programme of raising the platform levels will be a long-drawn affair as the suburban rail system is in operation and innovative methods of construction need to be adopted.
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