“After all, the world is theirs too,” the Madras High Court remarked while issuing a slew of directions to the Government of Tamil Nadu, the State Transport Corporations and private bus manufacturers to make public transport accessible to persons with disabilities, the aged, the pregnant women and children.
Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy lamented that not even a single low-floor bus was plying in any part of the State as on date, despite the Supreme Court as well as the High Court having passed several judgements since 2005 for the procurement of such government buses.
Nevertheless, now that the State government had acknowledged the need to provide 100% universally accessible public transport in the future and had promised to make a beginning following a persistent legal battle waged by activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar, the judges welcomed the move with certain directions.
The first Division Bench allowed the government to go ahead with a tender floated on October 10, 2022 for procurement of high floor buses with a rider that the number of such buses should be reduced from 1,107 to 950. It ordered that the rest of the 157 buses should be low-floor, and a separate tender should be floated for them within two weeks.
These 157 buses would be in addition to the 342 low floor buses (242 diesel and 100 electric) for which a separate tender has already been floated. Since the government had cited bad roads and inundation during rainy season as deterrents, the judges ordered the constitution of a committee to identify the routes for the 499 low-floor buses.
The committee should comprise of officials from the Transport Department, Institute of Road Transport, Metropolitan Transport Corporation and a disability rights organisation, and the routes must be decided in consultation with experts and after giving due consideration to the needs of persons with disabilities.
‘Develop apps for passengers’
Since it was reported to the court that the 499 low floor buses would be operated in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore, the judges ordered the development of mobile apps in each of the four cities so that passengers could know about the plying of the buses on a real-time basis, and wait at the bus stops accordingly.
The Bench also ordered that the respective municipal corporations must strive to continuously improve the quality of the roads, their maneuvering capacity and should scientifically lay the bumps/speed breakers enabling the smooth running of the low floor buses so that bad roads do not end up being a deterrent in the future.
“The bus stops should also be designed scientifically to suit the requirements of the differently abled. Henceforth, any development/reconstruction/repairing/improvement in any of the bus stops should focus on making them differently abled friendly with due facility for wheelchairs to get into low floor bus from the platform,” the Bench added.
Training for bus drivers
The judges also insisted on imparting special training to the bus drivers and conductors of the low-floor buses and make them learn to be patient enough to stop the vehicles and assist disabled commuters to get in and alight from the buses at the bus stops.
“It is made clear that the permission to purchase 950 high floor buses is granted by this order only as an exception and all endeavour should be made to purchase only low floor buses in the ensuing years in respect of the fleet which are to be run within the cities and its suburbs,” the Division Bench clarified.
It further ordered that a copy of its judgement should be circulated widely among automobile manufacturers and other relevant organisations to create awareness that there would be a market only for low-floor buses in the future so that there could be enough competition to supply such buses to the State.
Before parting with the case, the judges placed on record their appreciation for the petitoner’s counsel A. Yogeshwaran, Senior Counsel P.S. Raman for MTC, Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran, advocate M.V. Swaroop, Senior Counsel A.E. Chellaih, Ravi Ananthapadmanabhan and advocate ‘Elephant’ G. Rajendran for having assisted the court effectively.
