The State government on Wednesday, December 20, told the High Court of Karnataka that it has issued a circular making the installation of a voice-based public address system and disabled-friendly mechanism for boarding and deboarding mandatory in all existing buses.
The circular issued on December 19 was produced before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit during the hearing on a PIL petition, filed by N. Shreyas, a visually-challenged lawyer. The petitioner had sought a direction for a voice-based public audio-alerts/voice-based announcement system for the benefit of visually-challenged commuters.
During an earlier hearing, the government had assured the court that it would introduce a voice-based alert system and when the petition came up for hearing on Wednesday, the government counsel said that the circular has been issued in this regard and it has been ensured that both the public and private stage carriage vehicles will have to be fitted with such systems by June 30, 2024.
For old and new
For the new vehicles, the installation of these systems will have to be ascertained at the time of registration, and for the old vehicle, it has been inspected at the time of renewal of fitness certificate, the circular states. Meanwhile, the government counsel said that another circular with clarity on installation would be issued shortly.
Meanwhile, the Bench adjourned further hearing on the petition while asking the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation to submit compliance report on its assurance given to the court about installing these system in the new buses, which would be procured from January 2024 onwards.
