Madras High Court seeks CMDA response on Kilambakkam bus terminus not being accessible to disabled passengers

Madras HC seeks CMDA response to PIL over inaccessibility of Kilambakkam bus stand to disabled. Activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar filed PIL, alleging slippery & reflective flooring, lack of toilets & tactile paths. HC orders audit & rectification of defects before opening to public.

The Madras High Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that complained of a bus terminus being constructed at Kilambakkam, on the outskirts of Chennai, not being accessible to passengers with disabilities.

The First Division Bench of Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy ordered notice, returnable by November 30, to the CMDA, and permitted State Government Pleader P. Muthukumar to take notice on behalf of the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.

Activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar of Chennai has filed the PIL petition.

Spread over 88.52 acres, the Kilambakkam bus stand is touted to be Asia’s largest, and intended to operate buses to the southern districts of the State thereby reducing congestion at the Koyambedu bus terminus, she said. The bus stand was being constructed by the CMDA, an authority empowered to issue building completion certificates to other constructions after ensuring that they had complied with all legal requirements, and yet it had not complied with the requirements of persons with disabilities, the petitioner said.

Ms. Jayakumar complained about the slippery and reflective flooring without adequate contrasts, the absence of even a single toilet enabling bilateral wheelchair transfer to commode, the absence of tactile flooring and warnings on the entire first floor and of the tactile paths on the ground floor stopping short of the bus bays.

Asserting that there were many more shortcomings, the petitioner insisted on the conducting of an official audit and rectifying all of these defects before the bus stand was thrown open to the public.