Only 3 per cent of buildings accessible for disabled
About 52 of 1,662 public buildings across 50 cities have been retrofitted and made disabledfriendly under Accessible India, which was launched on December 3, 2015.
The first cities to have completed the accessibility task are Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar. (Representative image)
Two years after the launch of Accessible India campaign, the flagship programme to make public buildings and transport disabledfriendly, only 3% of buildings have become accessible. The first cities to have completed the accessibility task are Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar.
About 52 of 1,662 public buildings across 50 cities have been retrofitted and made disabledfriendly under Accessible India, which was launched on December 3, 2015.
According to statistics provided by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), 1,707 buildings were identified at the beginning of the programme to be made accessible to the differently-abled. After accessibility audits, which provide pointers to what features need to be adopted to make a building accessible, a state government has to send proposals to DEPwD. After this, the department releases funds to retrofit buildings. Accessibility audit was conducted in 1,662 of the 1,707 buildings which were finalised for retrofitting.
