Even as the deadline for making all the airports in the country accessible expired last month, just 20 airports have been equipped with ambulifts under the Centre's Accessible India campaign. These airports include Vijayawada, Kanpur, Port Blair, Jodhpur, Belgaum, Silchar, Jharsuguda, Rajkot and Hubli
The ambulifts aim to facilitate passengers with reduced mobility, 'divyang' travellers on wheelchairs and passengers on stretchers during their air travel. However, an official from the Department of Disability Affairs said India's 35 international airports and 55 out of 69 domestic airports are now accessible to 'divyangjan' with accessibility features, and 41 airports are fully equipped with aerobridges and 20 airports have been equipped with ambulifts under the Accessible India campaign. Ambulifts are used as a boarding vehicle for disabled passengers, passengers with reduced mobility or disabled air-travellers, or people using wheelchairs or the elderly with mobility issues.
“An ambulift is fitted with heating ventilation and air conditioning and can cater to six wheelchairs and two stretchers at a time with an attendant.
The ambulifts have been procured for Rs 63 lakh per unit. “...Airports Authority of India (AAI) is providing an ambulift facility at a nominal token charge to the operating airlines at its airports,” an official from the Authority had said two months ago. The Ambulift is manufactured domestically under the Make in India policy.
The central advisory board on disability has asked all states/UTs to assess the public buildings by July-end that are to be made accessible in "shortest possible time" for disabled under Accessible India campaign. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) had launched Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) as a nation-wide Campaign to serve differently-abled community of country.
Although Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 provided a timeline of five years for making all existing public buildings accessible by June 14 this year, till now 585 state buildings and 1,030 central government buildings have been made barrier-free for disabled. It was launched for achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) on December 3,2015. It has three important verticals, namely-theBuild Environment, the transportation sector and the ICT ecosystem.