Around 14 AAI Airports are now equipped with ambulifts to facilitate flyers with reduced mobility under Government’s Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), an official release said on Wednesday (13 April).
To facilitate passengers with reduced mobility, Divyang passenger on wheel chair and passenger on stretchers, AAI has procured 20 ambulifts for the airports which are having scheduled flight operations of Code C and other advanced level aircraft but does not have aerobridge facilities, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a release.
The ambulift has been manufactured indigenously under the ‘Make in India’ policy, it added.
The facility is presently operational at 14 airports namely Dehradun, Gorakhpur, Patna, Bagdogra, Darbhanga, Imphal, Vijayawada, Port Blair, Jodhpur, Belgaum, Silchar, Jharsuguda, Rajkot, Hubli and remaining six are likely to be operational at Dimapur, Jorhat, Leh, Jamnagar, Bhuj and Kanpur airports by the end of this month.
The ambulifts can cater to six wheelchairs and two stretchers with an attendant at a time and is fitted with heating ventilation and air-conditioning system.
The initiative taken up by AAI under Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) will provide convenient air travel to flyers with reduced mobility and will also help ‘Divyangjan’ at airports where aerobridge facility is not available, the ministry said.
Procured at a cost of Rs 63 lakhs per unit, AAI is providing Ambulift facility at a nominal token charge to the operating airlines at its airports, it added.
According to the ministry, the government has been working to take forward the vision of the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan to ensure fully accessible public infrastructure, including airports, railways stations and public transport systems.
The addition of ambulift at various AAI airports will strengthen transportation system accessibility, which is an important vertical of the Accessible India Campaign, it said.