Now, coaches to be Braille-enabled

Visually challenged passengers will soon find it easier to locate their berths on trains.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday announced that all new coaches would be Braille-enabled so that the visually challenged passengers could travel with lesser hassle.

Presenting the Rail Budget 2015-16 in Lok Sabha, Prabhu also said that rail coach manufacturing units had been asked to explore the possibility of building coaches with wider entrances so that the differently-abled passengers could find it easier to board trains.

To facilitate easy movement of the elderly and differently-abled passengers, the Railway Minister proposed  a budgetary allocation of Rs 120 crore – an increase of 76 per cent over final allocation in the current year – for installing lifts and escalators at major stations during the coming financial year.

“We will also provide a facility for online booking of wheel chair on payment basis for senior citizens, patients and the differently-abled passengers through IRCTC on select stations,” said Prabhu.

He also referred to the recently launched special initiative enabling the differently-abled travelers to buy concessional e-tickets from the IRCTC website after one-time registration.

The differently-abled people till recently had to buy concessional tickets only from the reservation counters of the Indian Railways after producing the Identity Card issued to them by the Centre or state governments. The IRCTC website recently launched a system which enabled them to buy e-tickets online.