MOSCOW, November 2 (Itar-Tass) —— About 40,000 comfortable access ramps will be built in Moscow for wheelchairs before the end of the year, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

He said about 80 percent of streetlights would also be adapted to people with hearing problems.

The city administration will virtually finish the programme of building access ramps this year. “About 40,000 such access ramps will be built this year,” the mayor said at a meeting of the Coordination Council for Disabled People on Wednesday, November 2.

In addition, the city authorities will install special signals on 1,200 streetlights for people with bad eyesight. “So, about 80 percent of streetlights in the city will be adapted to people with poor eyesight,” he said.

The city is also changing public transport to make it more comfortable for disabled people. “We will buy 2,000 low-floor buses this year. Eight hundred of them have already been delivered, and the rest are arriving as scheduled and will be here before the end of the year,” Sobyanin said.

As a result, 60 percent of buses in the city will have low floors for people with disabilities.

The mayor also spoke of adaptation of schools, hospitals and public places for disabled people. “This is a rather big job. We plan to renovate more than 5,000 buildings this year. We have already finished 2,800 of them and work on the rest of them is continuing,” he said.