NH foot bridges lack ramp, lift; disabled left in lurch

GURUGRAM: In a city built around dreams of personal mobility that is already unfriendly to pedestrians, newly-built infrastructure to facilitate the latter is, typical of India’s urban planning mess, failing miserably.

None of the three foot-over bridges (FOBs) built next to the three recently inaugurated underpasses are disabled-friendly, a basic requirement for all public infrastructure.

In most FOBs in Gurugram and Delhi, there is a

ramp

for access by wheelchair-bound people. Not here. The TOI team that visited all three on Monday, found the engineering and design baffling.

At the Iffco Chowk

FOB

, there are 8-9 stairs before one reaches the escalator. According to pedestrians, this defeats the purpose of the escalator. “If one has to climb stairs to reach the escalator, what is the use of the latter in the first place?” asked Sonu, who frequents the stretch.

At Signature Tower Chowk, the situation is similar. On Monday, final touches were being given to the FOB, even though the adjacent underpass had been inaugurated in January. Here too, 8-10 steps have to be scaled to reach the escalator, which is yet to become functional.

“Across the country, you have to climb stairs to access escalators. At least in the new infrastructure, they should have made provisions for the elderly. I get tired climbing stairs, and if there are escalators, the least they could do is to extend them to the ground level.” said Ramesh Vashishtha, a senior citizen and Gurugram-resident.

It gets worse at Rajiv Chowk. One has to go around the non-motorised transport (NMT) underpass — at least 200-300 m on either side — to access the main carriageway from the FOB. To make things worse, this stretch is always covered with dirt and sewage.

“The point of these FOBs was to make crossing wide roads with speeding traffic easier. If the infrastructure is so inaccessible, people will prefer crossing the road on foot itself,” said Radha, another commuter, who uses public transport and has to walk frequently.

As opposed to other new underpasses in the city, these three also do not have

lifts

. “These will be a challenge not just for the differently-abled, but also for elderly,” said Nipun Malhotra of Nipman Foundation, which works on the rights of the elderly. He himself suffers from locomotor disability.

“This is not just immoral but illegal and unconstitutional. In 2016, a law was passed which mandated making public transport and infrastructure disabled-friendly. It’s unfortunate that while the state government is forming rules for the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, it’s disregarding common sense in infrastructure development,” added Malhotra, the lead petitioner in the PIL which stopped the Delhi government from buying standard floor buses that are difficult to access for the disabled and elderly.