The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will equip Kushak Bakula Rinpoche airport in Leh with ambulifts in a bid to help air passengers with reduced mobility in boarding an aircraft.
Ambulifts that are ‘made-in-India’ are being deployed at this airport as Leh does not have aerobridge facilities, the authority said.
The 14 airports where this facility is already available are Dehradun, Bagdogra, Jodhpur, Patna, Darbhanga, Imphal, Gorakhpur, Vijayawada, Port Blair, Belgaum, Silchar, Rajkot, Jharsuguda and Hubli.
Airports in Leh, Dimapur, Kanpur, Jorhat, Jamnagar and Bhuj will have this facility by the end of this month, the AAI further mentioned.
According to the authority, the ambulifts can cater to six wheelchairs as well as two stretchers along with an attendant at a time and is fitted with heating, ventilation and AC system. Each unit is procured at a cost of Rs 63 lakh, as the AAI is offering ambulift facility at a nominal token charge to the operating airlines, the authority said. The initiative of providing ambulifts has been taken up by the AAI under the Accessible India campaign of the central government in order to facilitate air passengers with reduced mobility, divyang travellers on wheelchair and flyers on stretchers during their air travel, it added.
