Buildings to be friendly to them

BHUBANESWAR: With increased awareness, infrastructure developers are trying to incorporate differently abled-friendly features in public  buildings in the city. Despite their best intentions, these features are hardly serving the purpose, as many of them are not aware of the specifications. As per norms, every public building should have ramps with a gradient of 1:15, there should be auditory signals and signages for the hearing impaired, communication facilities  for visually and sensory challenged persons and toilets for the differently-abled people. In contrast, public buildings in Bhubaneswar like the Capital Hospital, State  Secretariat, SBI head office, Special Treasury no. 1 and  e-procurement building and State Library though equipped with ramps suffer from elevation problems and do not adhere to the gradient norm. Absence of support on both  sides, tiles to guide the visually challenged and also  access to toilets and other vital destinations after landing from the ramps are also missing. Not all the buildings in the city are compliant with the People With Disability Act, (PWD) 1995, and many  need structural changes to make them 100 per cent accessible. While a building like the Planetarium is not at all accessible for PWDs, Jaydev Bhawan, though having ramps, does not have toilets for them. Similarly, none of the cinema halls in the city is PWD-friendly.  “Not only the buildings, but structures such as footpaths, bus stops, tourism sites and other vital destinations need  structural changes for accessibility as they also include  safety issues,” said Shruti Mohapatra, founder of Swabhimaan - a disability advocacy and legislation cell.Meanwhile, the two-storey Bhubaneswar Municipal  Corporation (BMC) building will soon have ramps to facilitate the entry of differently-abled people. “Construction of some ramps in the back side of the building  has already started and other works in this regard will be initiated soon,” said Municipal Commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev. A team of engineers and architects had earlier this year  conducted an accessibility audit at the BMC building. Necessary modifications to the structure would be carried out to help people with disability.