Stuck elevators: Lift Act need of the hour, feel residents

LUCKNOW:For long, the residents of the city have been demanding a law to govern installation and maintenance of lifts and fixing onus in case of an untoward incident. But unfortunately, there is no such law in the state.

Three years ago, a few guidelines were issued by officials when the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was trapped inside the Vidhan Bhawan lift with his wife for 20 minutes, in December 2015.

However, in the absence of a law, developers, contractors and builders continued to install poor quality lifts which do not have automatic rescue device, as in the case of the stuck elevator in SGPGIMS on Wednesday, when 7 people remained trapped for two hours, said an official of a

top company which is into the work of lift and elevator installation..

Seeking anonymity, the official said, “SGPGIMS is a big institute and spends whopping amounts on many things. But there was no lift operator and the lift was poorly maintained. That is why it got stuck and the staff failed to bring it down manually.”

“In the absence of a Lift Act, those who install an elevator skip safety measures,” said former LDA VC and municipal commissioner Diwakar Tripathi. “Once the Act is in place, things would be more regulated,” he said.

“It is the duty of every owner, including the SGPGIMS, to enter into a contract with the registered person or company, for the maintenance, cleaning, oiling, adjusting and repairing of the lift or escalator. If it is not done, things will be managed very unprofessionally,” said environmentalist VK Joshi who lives in a multi-storey building in Gomti Nagar and uses a lift regularly.