A 45-year-old motivational speaker from Indore, who lost both his hands in a road accident when he was seven year old, has won a hard-fought battle to get his driver’s license.
Vikram Agnihotri, who drives with his legs, managed to get a learner’s license in May last year, but it took him nearly a year and four months to convert it into a driver’s license.
In that time period, he has driven nearly 15,000 kilometres in his modified car and now wants to drive to Leh once the situation stabilises.
“I used to have a full-time driver,” he told The Times of India. “But then I realised… you cannot depend on anyone for your basic needs.”
He drives an automatic gear shift car and uses his right leg to steer and left leg for the accelerator. Despite giving a proper driving license test, his application was rejected in October last year because he couldn’t give hand signals while driving, he told TOI.
Later, after approaching the Gwalior transport commissioner’s tribunal, he was told to modify his car according to a differently-abled person’s needs.
He even petitioned several ministers, and met transport minister Nitin Gadkari to present his case. Finally, on 30 September of this year, he was given a driving license under the “invalid carriage” category, reported TOI.
