India's government asks car makers to create disability friendly vehicles

From The Times of India:

NEW DELHI, India -- Car makers may soon have to manufacture disabled-friendly vehicles as the government has asked them to consider making at least one or
two models meant for physically challenged persons.

"The government has been advising car makers to consider manufacturing at least one or two models of their cars suitable to be driven by physically challenged persons," minister of state for heavy industries and public enterprises Arun Yadav said in Lok Sabha on August 7.

He said the government was also providing excise duty concessions on vehicles meant for physically challenged people.

According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Indian car makers, who were earlier providing vehicles with automatic transmission for physically challenged persons, had to discontinue the same since demand for such vehicles was rare and making them available "off the shelf" was not economically viable. Yadav said SIAM had also informed that the Indian automobile industry was committed to manufacturing such vehicles, on specific order, to suit the disability of a person.