Madras HC orders new buildings to have disabled friendly amenities

07 Jul 2021 CW Team

The Madras High Court yet again held on Monday that no new public buildings should be constructed or sanctioned or planned without providing access to persons with disabilities.

Sanjib Banerjee, the First Bench of Chief Justice and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, who gave the ruling, also said that the respondents, specifically the Public Works Department and its officials, should be familiar with the governing statute and therefore the national building code to make sure the mandatory instructions are fully adhered to.

The Bench was also passing interim orders on a PIL petition on the issue. It noted that the status report filed did not indicate whether persons with disabilities can access the public buildings across the State.

It is necessary that all public buildings, including courthouses, must have access that persons with disabilities may use.

Additionally, the Bench said that the toilets must also be installed in public buildings which persons with disabilities may use.

The Bench called for a more detailed report when the matter comes up again since the status report filed did not indicate the measures taken or the number of buildings where access for persons with disabilities has been provided and posted the matter on September 13.

Image Source

Also read: Runwal Homes to pay Rs 69 lakh as interest for late possession

Also read: UP RERA has decided to organise National Lok Adalat on July 10

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..