The Madras High Court on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, granted two weeks’ time for Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) to submit before the court, a report of the second access audit conducted at the 32 metro stations constructed under phase I of the project in the city.
The First Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice R. Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq also directed the CMRL to make the metro station layout maps available in the public domain for the benefit of passengers with disabilities.
The interim orders were passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by cross disability rights activist Vaishanavi Jayakumar, complaining about most metro stations not being compliant with the harmonised guidelines and standards for universal accessibility.
The petitioner had insisted that the infrastructure at the metro stations constructed under phase I, be retrofitted to assist to those with disabilities, and that the stations being constructed under phase II, be made disabled-friendly right from the construction stage.
Stating that retrofitting led to unnecessary expenditure of public money, the petitioner said, it would be better to comply with the harmonised guidelines issued by the Centre at the time of construction itself. She said, such an exercise had not been carried under phase I.
During the previous hearing of the case, CMRL counsel had claimed that 85% of the defects pointed out in the first access audit report of the stations under phase I had been rectified. However, the litigant had disputed this, leading to the court ordering a second access audit.
On Wednesday, the ACJ told the litigant’s counsel that a final chance of two weeks could be granted for submission of the second access audit report and thereafter, a time limit could be fixed for CMRL to rectify the defects and retrofit the infrastructure to make it disabled friendly.
