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Airlines offer discounted tickets to senior citizens. That’s good, but not enough. If you see the buses that ferry passengers from the airport terminal to the aircraft, you will realise that service providers spare no thought to senior citizens or, for that matter, people who are physically challenged or even those passengers who are carrying small babies in their arms. The access to these buses should be easy—there should be just one low step—instead most of them have several steep steps. The public sector Indian Airlines has recently acquired new buses in Delhi and these are even worse than the earlier ones in so far as the access to the buses is concerned. One has to climb several steep steps to get on to the bus. As it is, it is highly outdated to have buses ferrying passengers from the terminal to the aircraft. The access to the aircraft should be through an aerobridge. Instead, what we have are buses that are just not built for passenger comfort. This is not the only
area where one sees lack of sensitivity to consumer safety and
comfort. During a recent visit to Hyderabad, I noticed that new floors
were being laid at the airport. And the flooring was really slippery.
Given the fact that hundreds and thousands of passengers pass through
the airports, the authorities have to ensure that the flooring is
slip-proof so that passengers do not slip and fall and break their
bones. With brittle bones and osteoporosis on the rise in older women,
airports should particularly pay attention to the flooring and ensure
that they do not become the cause of serious accidents. Agreed, the
flooring should look I can recall at least three serious accidents caused as a result of negligence at the airports—all the cases came up before the consumer courts. In the case of Sunil Kumar Nair, a heavy iron rod flew from the conveyor belt and fell on his right foot and injured him, even as he waited to have his baggage screened at the Chennai International Airport. The young man had got admission at the Yale Business School and was flying to the United States—thanks to the injury caused at the airport and the consequent fracture in his bone, he had to walk with the help of a walking stick for several weeks. It affected his studies too. Dr Jiteswar Ahir’s case was more serious. He suffered not just multiple fractures but permanent disability as a result of a steep fall from the aircraft. Even as he settled in his allotted seat in the aircraft, an airhostess asked him to go down and identify his baggage on the airfield. As he moved towards the rear door and stepped on to the first rung, the step ladder was moved away by the ground staff, resulting in his fall. Young Jyotsna’s tragic case, I am sure, is still fresh in everybody’s memory. The girl was crushed to death between the moving comb plates of the escalator at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, as she was coming down the escalator. Lack of safety consciousness and negligence were the primary causes of all these accidents. And they were all preventable. Today, airports are handling a much larger number of passengers and unless they pay more heed to safety, accidents such as these can well increase. Secondly, today, the number of senior citizens who are travelling is also on the increase. And so their safety has to be kept in mind. Western societies are so sensitive to the needs of physically challenged persons that airports are built keeping their needs in mind. And this facilitates their mobility and encourages them to travel. That sensitivity is lacking here and that can be seen in the way our airports are built or the public transport system is run or even the way our public facilities and buildings are constructed. This has to be corrected. In fact the new Indian airlines buses at Delhi are a glaring example of this lack of sensitivity. If you look around, you do not see many physically challenged persons travelling in our country—the reason is obvious. Airports around the country are now being re-designed or re-built. At least now, efforts must be made to overcome some of these lacunae. Consumer safety and comfort should be the guiding principle behind all designs and all public services. Our airports should make consumers, particularly the elderly, feel safe and secure and give them the confidence to travel. Not make them feel nervous or insecure.
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