AAI equips 14 airports with Ambulifts to aid flyers with reduced mobility
Ambulifts can cater to 6 wheelchairs and 2 stretchers at a time and are fitted with heating ventilation and air- conditioning systems.
Flyers with reduced mobility, or in other words, people with disabilities often find themselves in tough situations while boarding aircraft. In a bid to facilitate smooth boarding and travel for this section of flyers, as many as 141 airports under the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have been equipped with Ambulifts.
The move to facilitate flyers with reduced mobility to use airports and aircraft boarding easily, the Accessible India Campaign or the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, under the Union Government has taken wing.
To facilitate passengers with reduced mobility, Divyang passenger on wheel chair and passenger on stretchers, AAI has procured 20 Ambulifts for the airports, which have scheduled flight operations of Code C & other advanced level aircraft but does not have aerobridge facilities. The Ambulifts have been manufactured indigenously under the ‘Make in India’ policy.
Ambulifts facility takes wing in 14 AAI airports
The facility has been made operational at as many as 14 airports, which include the AAI airports at Dehradun, Gorakhpur, Patna, Bagdogra, Darbhanga, Imphal, Vijayawada, Port Blair, Jodhpur, Belgaum, Silchar, Jharsuguda, Rajkot, Hubli. The remaining six are likely to be operational at Dimapur, Jorhat, Leh, Jamnagar, Bhuj and Kanpur airports by the end of this month.
Ambulifts can cater to six wheelchairs and two stretchers with an attendant at a time and are fitted with heating ventilation and air- conditioning systems. The initiative undertaken by the Airports Authority of India under the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan are aimed at providing convenient air travel to flyers with reduced mobility. It also aims at helping the ‘Divyangjan’ at airports where aerobridge facilities are not available.
Procured at a cost of Rs 63 lakh per unit, the Airports Authority of India is providing Ambulift facility at a nominal token charge to the operating airlines at its airports.
Facility ushered in as part of the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan
The Union Government has also been working to take forward the vision of the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan in order to ensure fully accessible public infrastructure, including airports, railways stations and public transport systems.
The new addition of Ambulift at various airports operating under the Airports Authority of India is expected to strengthen the transportation system accessibility, which is considered as an important vertical of the Accessible India Campaign.
