20 new low-floor buses with retrofitting for differently-abled people flagged off in Madurai

New low-floor buses in Tamil Nadu designed for differently abled passengers with ramps, digital boards, and announcement systems.

Twenty new low-floor differently abled people friendly Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation buses were flagged off by Minister for Registration and Commercial Taxes P. Moorthy here on Friday. 

While it was a new introduction to the district, it would contain all facilities like ramps, digital boards, announcement system, space to fit wheelchairs and others, to ensure easy travel for people with all types of disabilities.  

The low-floor buses were designed in a way to provide easy access for differently abled people and senior citizens. As the buses would have a ground clearance of only 400 milli metres, in addition to having a kneeling facility to lower it to about 60mm when halted, it should create no hassle for the wheelchair bound passengers to board and deboard buses.  

Ramps could be lowered for wheelchair bound passengers from the rear end of the bus when the bus stops at any stop. Also, it would be spacious enough to contain wheelchairs and other support equipment.  

As it also has digital boards and announcement systems, it would facilitate hearing-impaired and visually impaired people to learn about the details of the routes in their travel.  

S. Namburajan, State vice-president, Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers (TARATDAC), welcoming the launch of low-floor buses, said that though its usefulness could not be contained in words, it would have to be introduced in all the districts in the State. 

As per the mandates of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the initiative of retrofitting buses with ramps should have been done long before.