Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot has said, the government is establishing sports training centres at five locations in the country, exclusively for the differently-abled people.

He unveiled the Standing Wheelchair, developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, for commercial production at a function held in Chennai today. He said works with regard to one of such spot centre have already started.

The Standing Wheelchair has been developed indigenously at the Research Park of the Madras IIT. It helps the differently-abled people not only to move from one place to another like the normal wheelchair but also enable them to stand on their own, without seeking other’s help.

The patented design and manufacturing technique has been transferred to a private firm that was earlier incubated in the Madras IIT Research Park itself.