The Minister of Railways Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal has said that to facilitate the boarding of trains and exit from the stations for the differently-abled and the elderly, the Railways proposes to take several measures. These include provision of 179 escalators and 400 lifts at A-1 and other major stations, affixing Braille stickers indicating the layout of coaches including toilets, provision of wheel chairs and battery operated vehicles at more stations and making coaches wheel-chair friendly.

Presenting the Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Parliament today he said, in order to provide an employment avenue to the disabled people, he proposed to reserve a specified number of Jan-Sadharan Ticket Booking Sevaks (JTBS) for them, keeping in view the fact that the PCOs at stations have become largely redundant after the mobile revolution in India.

MKP/AD/DB

(Release ID :92499)

Accessibility measures for differently-abled passengers expand station infrastructure and reserve ticketing posts for disability inclusion. Railway policy announces installation of escalators and lifts at principal stations, affixing Braille stickers for coach layouts and toilets, provision of wheelchairs and battery operated vehicles, and making coaches wheelchair friendly; it also proposes reservation of specified Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Sevak posts for persons with disabilities to link accessibility improvements with employment inclusion.