Many elevators need modernisation, safety and quality standards in Sri Lanka

While technology plays a major role in making things easy and efficient, elevators and escalators also play an important part in moving people faster. Modernization of these elevators and escalators also need to take place while adapting to new technology, considering the safety and quality standards.

There are instances where people have felt buildings shake thinking that it’s an earthquake after getting off an elevator. That is because it’s not the building that shakes but the elevator’s pressure variance that creates the feeling in people’s minds. These things need to be monitored and corrected to avoid various other side effects.

These comments were made by Amit Gossain, Managing Director of KONE Elevators India, to the Business Times on the sidelines of a media briefing held at the Hilton Colombo on Thursday. KONE is a global leader in elevators and escalators. The briefing was called to announce the entry of KONE Elevators into Sri Lanka in a partnership with Scan Technologies Global ( Pvt) Ltd, the main distributor.

Mr. Gossain said, “Lots of elevators and escalators needs modernisation with good quality standards in Sri Lanka. There are old elevators with no branding while most of them are 15 to 20 years old.”

He also noted that there won’t be an oversupply of housing in Sri Lanka. “The road network is developing in Sri Lanka while connectivity between cities have developed as a result. Sri Lanka has a growing population. It’s the foreign expatriates who are living abroad who invest in properties in Sri Lanka. There won’t be an oversupply of housing in Sri Lanka contrary to many officials predicting a bubble in the real estate segment.”

During the media briefing Mr. Gossain stated that KONE elevators move one billion people around the world every day. There are 52,000 employees globally while there are 400,000 customers with one million elevators manufactured. The company has grown three times in sales during last decade with profits exceeding 1.5 trillion euros. The company has its presence in 140 countries with large factories in China, India, Europe and Finland.

He also mentioned that the elevators save 70 per cent power at the moment while power free elevators are designed to be manufactured.

Scan Technologies Global ( Pvt) Ltd Chairman, Keerthi Abeynayake stated that the company supplies elevators, air conditioners and newspaper printing machines to Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh while there are plans to move to Korea. He also mentioned that the Jeddah tower in Saudi Arabia, the tallest building in the world will be equipped with KONE elevators that can travel at a speed of 10 metres per second.