Poorly maintained lifts of residential societies pose risk to the safety of Gurugram citizens

GURUGRAM: The peril to citizens of Gurugram due to poorly maintained lifts again came to fore after more than 20 people got trapped in a lift for more than 40 minutes in the district mini-secretariat. Some of the people who were trapped were aged in their 60's.

This is not for the first time when the lift became dysfuctional all of a sudden in the government building.

It is, however, not also the first case when the residents have been compromised due to poor maintenance of the lifts. Recently a family got trapped in the lift for an hour in a residential society in Sector-107.

Most of the cash-strapped builders have outsources their work to maintenance agencies to reduce their costs. It has, however, not improved the situation as there are complaints that the builders refused to pay the maintenance agencies which is now compromising on the quality.

The tipping point has reached where a facility management company on short notice is exiting from the maintenance of the residential society in New Gururgam

The problems of poor maintenance are mostly felt in the hundreds of societies that have come up in Sohna Road and New Gurugram that comprise the sectors of 81-95. There have been instances in the past where a woman had to even undergo surgery as a dysfunctional lift fell down from the eleventh floor.

Most of the residents have addressed the concerns to the Chief Minister using various platforms.

Having unable to find an effective solution, most of the resident bodies have also written to the Prime Minister Office for intervention. There are over 20 societies that have formally registered their complaints against the builder with Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP).

Meanwhile, certain resident bodies have taken the task of maintenance from the builders.

The resident bodies, however, claimed that there is no support from the strong builder lobby as they do not forego the heavy maintenance fee that is being obtained from the residents.

“There is no denying the fact that most of the builders for granted and not used the huge amounts of money collected from them towards the welfare. There is a need for the government to intervene and top the loot. It is sad that the state government in most of the cases have been found wanting,” said Sudhir Ahuja, one of the city residents.