Feb. 23: The Umananda temple has been given a facelift, but it will continue to be virtually out of bounds for disabled people. The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has expressed its inability to make special provisions for them to visit the historical temple.

“Given the difficult terrain on which the temple is located, it would not be immediately possible to make some separate arrangements for the disabled,” GMDA executive officer Ashutosh Agnihotri said. The GMDA has been undertaking the facelift. Agnihotri said the island housing the temple did not have proper electric supply to facilitate installation of a lift or an escalator for the disabled. “As of now, we do not have any such project, but in future, definitely, we will like to incorporate such things to make the temple easily accessible to the people with disabilities,” he added.

The development authority, however, has something to offer the disabled in the renovated Nehru Park. Agnihotri said the facilities available in the park were already “disabled-friendly”. He said the pathways were wide enough for one to move in wheelchairs. “There will be no problem in the gate either for the disabled to go in,” he said.

GMDA vice-chairman and the architect of the development authority’s facelift programmes, M.G.V.K. Bhanu, recently told the media that the park would cater to the need of all sections of the society. He had also taken mediapersons around the renovated park.

The Parents’ Association of Shishu Sarothi has demanded the GMDA to make all new constructions of public facilities in the city disabled-friendly by implementing the provisions of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

Arman Ali, a disabled entrepreneur working with Shishu Sarothi, had demanded that Nehru Park should have ramps and railings for wheelchair users and appropriate signage for access and use of persons with disabilities.

The renovated Nehru Park, spread over 18 bighas of land, will have a maze, a rock garden, an improvised go-carting trek, a playing arena for children, an open-air theatre, an open-air restaurant and more than two km of pathway. The GMDA officials said they would also consider putting up appropriate signage for the disabled in the park.

The Umananda temple renovation project, to be completed at a cost of Rs 35 lakh, will have pathways, a meditation centre where around 20 to 25 people can meditate at a time and a shopping complex. Both the projects are likely to be completed this summer.