First Airport in India to have wheelchair lift

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad achieved another milestone.

In order to improve the services to passengers especially the physically challenged people, Hyderabad Airport introduced Verti-lifts or wheelchair lifts. This lift not just helps the differently abled people but also aids the people who are unable to move or have limited mobility due to aging.

With this, the airport became the first in India to have wheelchair lift in airport. This move was taken as part of Accessible India Campaign of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd to help passengers with low or reduced mobility.

Hyderabad is one of the biggest airports in India and over 40,000 passengers use it daily for their traveling. Out of them, more than 100 are wheelchair-bound. The new facility is intended to help the domestic arrival passengers under ‘Passenger is Prime’.

The wheelchair lift is powered by electricity which can be operated by a remote control after securing the wheelchair-bound passengers onto the platform of the lift. Power backup facility is also there for continuous operations. With this new facility, the passengers can elevate from the gate to the baggage claim area within two minutes.

Furthermore, the people that have low mobility are provided with curbside parking at both departure and arrival ramps at the airport. This facilitates them to get wheel chair assistance from the curbside parking till check-in. Even visually challenged people can read instructions in Braille on elevators across the terminals. Not just that, wheel-chair friendly washrooms are also available at the airport.

The airport authorities expressed their happiness on introducing Verti-lifts to serve people with low mobility and becoming the first to launch this facility in the country.

Their constant efforts in adopting and applying latest technology to serve passengers and provide exceptional services achieved this.

Image Credit: Steve Morgan / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheelchair_lift_SF_7041.jpg