Date:05/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070557880400.htm

New Delhi

New bus queue shelters for Delhi before 2010 Games

Staff Reporter

Over 1,000 of them are being modernised by DTC

An initiative of Sminu Jindal Charitable Trust, Svayam, to be DTC’s partner in peoject
Phase III of project aims at making shelters completely barrier-free and accessible to all

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Transport Corporation and Svayam, an initiative of Sminu Jindal Charitable Trust, have announced a partnership for working together to ensure that the upcoming bus queue shelters in Phase III of DTC’s modernisation programme are accessible to all users, be it the elderly or people with reduced mobility.

The move assumes significance as over 1,000 bus queue shelters are being modernised across the Capital ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2010. While 248 such shelters form part of Phase I, 400 each are part of the Phase II and Phase III of the project. Since there were some faults in the designs used in the first two phases, in Phase III the construction would be undertaken in such a manner that they are completely barrier-free and accessible to all.

DTC Chairman and Managing Director Ramesh Negi said, “the recommendations and design have been accepted and incorporated into the contract document and the concessionaire’s work will be supervised by Svayam at no cost to the Government to ensure adherence to the accessibility norms.”

Mr. Negi said it was good that various organisations were coming forward to support the process of execution “with the sole objective of ensuring accessibility to all”. Incidentally, DTC has accepted Svayam’s recommendations to post their audit report and will be incorporating them into Phase III of the construction. The report provides recommendations for improving accessibility in the new bus shelter design.

Svayam founder Sminu Jindal said an accessible transport system can play an important role in making the elderly and the reduced mobility people benefit from the cheapest and most popular mode of travel.

She said the bus queue shelters are meant to provide comfortable travelling experience not only to the disabled but the elderly, women and children as well.