New Delhi: In an effort to make the campus barrier-free for differently-abled students, Jawaharlal Nehru University is set to run an air-conditioned bus for travel within the premises.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) will extend financial support of Rs 30.35 lakh for the project. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in this regard between the university and BHEL yesterday.
“This AC bus by BHEL will benefit around 300 differently-abled students living on the university campus, particularly in the summer months from April to July when the weather is extremely hot,” said JNU chief spokesperson Poonam Kudasia.
The university administration will provide additional infrastructure at bus stops commensurate with the nature of the disabilities of students.
Recently, a group of differently-abled students in JNU had expressed concern over the slow pace of infrastructural projects to make the campus barrier-free and demanded that the process be expedited.
Welcoming this move of running an AC bus on campus, Mohib Anwar, a representative of the Visually Challenged Students' Forum in JNU, said, “We are very happy with this initiative. This was among our long-standing demands.”