Mumbai: Senior Citizens Will Have Their Own Compartment on Indian Railways, Information Inside

The Indian Railways is probably going to allocate at least one baggage compartment for the elderly in Mumbai in an effort to make transportation for them simpler. This comes after a public lawsuit was filed in the Bombay High Court in 2022 calling for a separate area for senior citizens. Additionally, it has been stated that an affidavit about the matter was also submitted to court by the railway’s administration.

According to the PIL submitted by 66-year-old petitioner K P Purushothamam Nair, there are more than 50,000 elderly adults who ride suburban trains every day but are unable to find a comfortable seat since the majority of them are often occupied by children.

Servey for older persons to have their own space in local trains

A recent assessment also found that switching one vendor compartment out of four for passengers won’t create any problems since baggage compartments only take up 6.18 percent of the capacity on a 12-car train. It only uses 0.32 percent of the overall capacity, however. More than 30% of its real capacity is carried by passengers traveling in ordinary class.

Senior folks will have a distinct area, according to officials.

The official claimed in response to the survey’s results that it is apparently impossible to create more room in the general coach since it is currently packed to capacity with people. Making room in the baggage compartment for older adults, on the other hand, is more practical since the vacant space may be used.

A sou motu PIL, which was created from a letter submitted by A B Thakker, sought to create a distinct section for senior folks. A division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and A. S. Gadkari heard it in 2014. The Bombay High Court once again ordered the CR and WR in 2015 to reserve 14 seats in every suburban train for senior passengers and to ensure that the allocated seats would not be used by any other passengers.