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The Airport Authority of India (AAI) inaugurated a new 'ambulift' (ambulance lift) facility at Rajkot Airport to facilitate passengers with reduced mobility, informed the Civil aviation Ministry on Saturday.
To help Divyang passengers to board the main decks of all types of aircraft, AAI has equipped 14 airports across the country with ambulifts to facilitate passengers with reduced mobility under the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan). The facility is presently operational at 14 airports namely Dehradun, Gorakhpur, Patna, Bagdogra, Darbhanga, Imphal, Vijayawada, Port Blair, Jodhpur, Belgaum, Silchar, Jharsuguda, Rajkot, Hubli. It is likely to be operational at Dimapur, Jorhat, Leh, Jamnagar, Bhuj, and Kanpur airports by the end of this month. The ambulifts can cater to six wheelchairs and two stretchers with an attendant at a time and are fitted with Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditioning system. The initiative taken up by AAI under the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) of the Government of India will provide convenient air travel to flyers with reduced mobility and also help 'Divyangjan' at airports where aerobridge facility is not available. AAI has procured 20 ambulifts for the airports which are having scheduled flight operations of Code C and other advanced level aircraft but do not have aerobridge facilities. The ambulift has been manufactured indigenously under the 'Make in India' policy, the ministry said. Procured at a cost of Rs 63 lakhs per unit, AAI is providing ambulift facility at a nominal token charge to the operating airlines at its airports, the ministry said. (ANI)
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