Naman Parakh, a visually impaired 20-year-old from Hyderabad who studies at St Xavier’s College in South Mumbai, recently found himself in a fix. Uneasy about travelling by train alone to his place of birth during the festive season, he had no friend to turn to, as most of his peers had already departed for their hometowns. Though he eventually had to rely on relatives, the experience spurred the third-year BMS student into forming, on Sunday, October 26, the Mumbai edition of a Delhi-based platform, TravAcs, a contraction of ‘travel accessibility’, which pairs visually impaired individuals with sighted individuals who are paid to serve as guides known as TravAcsers.
Parakh is supported in this endeavour by fellow Xavierite Urvi Rathi, a first-year management undergraduate who hails from Gujarat. The students are working to create a resource pool of citizens who wish to join the service, after which there will be background checks, training, and a formal launch that is anticipated early next year. In a single day since the formation of the Mumbai edition, the duo received 25 applications — mostly from those in their early and mid-20s.
A community building session organised by the Delhi chapter of TravAcs involving 50 visually impaired participants and 25 guides at Sanjay Van last month. Pic/By Special Arrangement
“My friends and I have explored the cafes, restaurants, and gardens in South Mumbai. We usually ask a stranger for help if we are lost, and Mumbaikars are often happy to oblige. However, there are many situations where you can’t simply make do with a stranger, be it shopping, trying a new mode of public transport, or visiting less crowded tourist sites such as the Kanheri Caves. This is where the platform will come in handy,” Parakh told mid-day. While the service is operated via WhatsApp and Google Workspace, plans are on to create an application for iOS and Android.
The inspiration
The model is inspired by TravAcs Delhi, which is run a team that includes Parakh’s friend, Prateek Kumar. The entire organisation is run by youth in their early 20s, with diverse forms of vision impairment, ranging from complete blindness to low vision, with varying underlying conditions.
Launched in December 2024, the Delhi chapter has nearly 100 volunteers, 30 to 35 of whom operate frequent trips throughout the week. Be it accompanying visually impaired couples on dates or helping them have a fun weekend, the platform has gone from managing one to two trips a week to nearly one a day and is in high demand on the weekends. “We monitor the trips in real time and ensure thorough background checks, documentation, and training.
The users are charged an average of Rs 170, and TravAcsers are paid an average of Rs 150 per hour; however, the charge only increases gradually after every hour. While we run on WhatsApp groups and Google Workspace at the moment, we are in works to launch an application for iOS and Android that makes the process smoother,” said Kumar, the co-founder of the platform and a third-year student from Hindu College, Delhi University.
What’s next?
In Mumbai, the young students are still in the process of navigating their pool of guides. The applicants are asked which area of Mumbai they reside in, which railway line they frequent, their schedules, and their comfort levels. The team is also trying to modify the pricing to match the Mumbai demographic. With training and background checks, the platform is anticipated to go live by January 2026. “While we have only led off with a platform to support the visually impaired, we hope to expand our services to those with motor disabilities and even senior citizens,” said Parakh and Rathi.
