New Delhi: The intent is admirable, but experts are not too impressed with the work going on to make Delhi University friendly for specially abled students . Since March, the Public Works Department , on the university's request, has been making changes to the infrastructure to make North Campus accessible to all.In the retrofitting and maintenance effort, PWD is levelling pavements and providing ramps, installing railings, tactile paths to guide visually challenged people and removing obstacles on the pavements. But the work, experts said, did not meet the norms of the Indian Road Congress' street design guidelines for pedestrian use.For one, the stainless steel railings installed in front of colleges serve no purpose. They are either obstructed by bollards or are too far away from the ramps.Moreover, some railings near the bus stands have not been properly secured. A PWD official responded that most of the railings were erected to "define the gates of colleges or buildings". The official said, "Only railings at the bus stands have been installed to help people in wheelchairs. The others have nothing to do with disabled people."The tactile paths too are not continuous and some end abruptly. They don't even warn a visually impaired person of a tree or manhole lying ahead. "I don't follow the tactile path because it is misleading," testified Gurdeep, a visually impaired first year student of the School of Open Learning. "There are several obstructions on the pavement, so I prefer taking the regular road."Samarthyam, an organisation that works on accessibility issues, had conducted the accessibility audit of North Campus in 2015 at DU's invitation. The audit, carried out in collaboration with PWD, had taken up the five major road stretches on the campus and in its report, Samarthyam had pointed out several problem areas that needed to be addressed to make the university disabled friendly.However, this access audit is not being referenced, claimed Bipin Tiwari, OSD, Equal Opportunity Cell, DU. Tiwari, who has been pushing the matter with PWD for over a year and a half, said, "The retrofitting is not being done as per the accessibility standards. The access audit is not being consulted."Anjlee Agarwal, founder and executive director of Samarthyam, added that the whole purpose of the access audit would be defeated if the railings were not properly erected or the obstructions on the tactile path remained unremoved. "There is no point in carrying out the retrofitting or repairs without following the IRC 103:2012 Guidelines for pedestrian facilities," Agarwal said. PWD is spending close to Rs 50 lakh on the effort though its officials admit that they don't have the expertise to make everything fully disabled-friendly. "We are trying our best. We are also learning from the experts and if changes required, we will do the needful," assured an official.

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