BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday permitted BMTC to take steps to procure new buses after issuing work order and floating tender.
A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Ashok S Kinagi passed the order after hearing the petitioner’s counsel and the BMTC.
A PIL was filed by Sunil Kumar Jain, a resident of Azadnagar. He sought court directions to prescribe that the floor height of buses should be between 400 mm to a maximum of 650 mm while the doors should have wheelchair boarding facilities for specially-abled and senior citizens. The BMTC had recently invited a tender for 840 new BS-VI city-type buses.
The court, while admitting the petition, said that BMTC is in the process of taking various steps to comply with the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act.
There cannot be a dispute that BMTC should take steps in a phase-wise manner, and not how the petitioner is seeking which is in one go. Therefore, the BMTC should be given some time to take appropriate steps in a phase-wise manner, the court said.
The court also noted the positive steps taken by BMTC in an attempt to comply with the provisions of the Right of Persons Disabilities Act 2016. The photographs placed on record show that the new buses available in a fleet of public transport are wheelchair-passenger friendly. The statement of objections states that at present 21 per cent of BMTC buses provide accessibility for wheelchairs. It was also stated that in each bus, four seats are reserved for the specially-abled, the court said.