Purushottam Express to have first Braille-signage coach in India

Asia-Pacific, February 17 2014

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Purushottam Express is slated to become the first train in the country to have a Braille- embedded AC coach for  passengers with vision disabilities.

In a first of its kind, Railways has manufactured an AC three-tier coach with Braille signages to be operational by end of this month in the Delhi-Puri superfast Purshottam Express as part of its social commitment to make trains and stations more friendly towards passengers with disabilities.

At present, coaches are provided with signages, instructions, seat numbers, etc, which are mostly in the form of vinyl stickers or metallic plates and have no Braille characters and cannot be read by passengers with vision disabilities.

The first coach with Braille signages, manufactured at Integrated Coach Factory in Chennai is ready and stationed here to be rolled out with Purshottam Express, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The AC coach is equipped with Braille-embedded signages on berths, toilets, wash basins and doors as well.

He said accessible AC coach was made with the inputs received from Research Designs and Standards Organisation, Railways’ research arm, and consultation with blind associations.

Expected to be a major step for facilitation of passengers with vision disabilities during journey in trains, Railways plans to equip more AC and non-AC coaches with Braille-embedded signages.

It costs about Rs 40,000 to make a coach accessible for passengers with vision disabilities as Braille printing are superimposed on the stickers which can be used by both a person with normal vision as well as a person with vision disability.

With embedded pictures or characters, there would not be any defacing even on repeated contacts or rubbing.

It was announced in the Rail Budget of 2013-14, that Braille stickers will be introduced for passengers with vision disabilities.

Source: Times of India