To ensure comfortable travel for people with disabilities, the railways have earmarked berths, preferably lower ones, for them and their attendants in the mail and express trains.
This facility is already in place for the elderly and women travelling alone or with small children.
In an order to its zones issued on March 31, the Railway Board has said that four berths in Sleeper class (two lower and two middle), two berths in 3 AC (one lower and one middle), two berths in 3E class (one lower and one middle) will be reserved for people with disabilities and their attendants.
In Garib Rath trains, a provision has been made to reserve two lower berths and two upper berths for persons with disabilities. However, for this facility, they will have to pay the full fare.
Apart from this, in AC chair car trains two seats will be reserved for the ‘Divyang’ or persons with disabilities.
The railways offer concessions in fare to four categories of disabled persons — orthopedically handicapped/paraplegic persons and mentally retarded persons who cannot travel without an escort, completely blind persons and the totally deaf and dumb travelling alone or with an escort.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)