Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi, who has been living in a wheelchair after a near fatal road accident in 2004, is set to begin a new innings in his life.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician, who turned paraplegic following the accident on April 24, 2004 on the outskirts of Raipur, on Thursday left for Mumbai from here to undergo trial of walking with robotic legs under the supervision of experts of New Zealand-based Rex Bionics Limited, which has agreed to fix the robotic exoskeleton on him to ensure his mobility.
Mr Jogi will be the first Indian to walk with robotic legs, if the scheduled trial succeeds.
“I am needed to undergo trial to practise with the robotic legs for a week from Friday under the guidance of experts from Rex company. The experts will fine tune the device in their company in New Zealand after the trial and subsequently refit it with me. I hope to be able to walk with the robotic legs within a month,” Mr Jogi told this newspaper before embarking on his flight to Mumbai in the evening.
The experts were earlier scheduled to carry out the trail at Raipur, but later asked him to come to Mumbai for the purpose after the New Zealand embassy at New Delhi advised them not travel to “Naxal-infested Chhattis-garh”.