Public building lifts to have voice announcement: CPWD

“All lifts should be modified with audio announcement, visual display of the floor number from inside the lift,” the CPWD instructions read. It added that emergency evacuation routes for PwD should be “displayed appropriately with signage announcement in braille language”. The regional offices were also told that “retrofitting of all other buildings, which are yet to be done, should be taken on priority”.

The 2021 guidelines were formulated under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and were an update on the 2016 version of guidelines. The Act goes on to say all existing public buildings shall be made accessible according to rules formulated by the government in 5 years of their notification.

Under Accessible India Campaign, launched in 2015, the CPWD had reported completion of retrofitting of all 1,100 Central government buildings that were included in the target, as per a reply by the government to Parliament in December last year. This was before the 2021 guidelines were notified.

According to CPWD sources, all buildings where retrofitting could be done, including adding ramps and accessible toilets, had been made accessible, while new buildings, like the New Parliament building and under-construction Common Central Secretariat in Delhi, were being constructed with accessibility features.

A CPWD spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment till the filing of the report.

The 2021 guidelines, which were drafted by a team of the IIT-Roorkee led by Prof Gaurav Raheja and the National Institute of Urban Affairs, say lifts “should have a voice announcement system along with a visual display to indicate the floor level and also the information that the door of the elevator is open or closed for entrance or exit”.

For office and public buildings, the guidelines say emergency evacuation routes and assembly points are needed for “minimum compliance for accessibility”.

Rights activists, however, say there is a lot more to be done. Activist Nipun Malhotra said if the Harmonised Guidelines 2021, or even the 2016 version, was implemented, the country would be much more accessible.

Vaishnavi Jayakumar of the Disability Rights Alliance said: “All new buildings that we have visited to check accessibility invariably have errors in the lift and escalator installations. How is this non-standard equipment even being allowed for sale when accessibility as per the Harmonised Guidelines is mandated for public spaces?”