Residents of Noida, Greater Noida hail nod for law on elevator safety

The need for regulation was highlighted by several incidents of people getting trapped in elevators in the region.

Residents of Noida and Greater Noida -- home to over 200 high rise societies – have welcomed the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s declaration that his government will enact a law ensuring safety and security of lifts/escalators in multi-storey buildings.

The state has no law to govern installation, operation or maintenance of elevators at present. (HT Photo/Sunil Ghosh)

The chief minister made the announcement on Monday.

The state has no law to govern installation, operation or maintenance of lifts/elevators at present.

The need for such a regulation was felt, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR) cities, where thousands of people live in high-rise complexes that rely entirely on lifts, as several cases of people getting trapped in elevators occurred in the past.

READ | Nine techies hurt after lift falls from eighth floor at office building in Noida

On December 22, nine people working at an IT firm in an office space, located at a high-rise commercial tower in Sector 125, Noida, suffered injuries after their lift fell from the eighth floor of the tower.

Previously, in mid-September, a service lift malfunctioned at an under-construction site in Greater Noida West, leading to the death of nine daily wagers. It came just days after a 73-year-old woman succumbed to injuries in August, after her lift malfunctioned, at a high-rise society in Sector 137, Noida.

Founder of the Federation of Apartment Owners Association and Ghaziabad resident Alok Kumar had filed a PIL in 2015, seeking directions from the state to formulate and implement comprehensive regulations for the safe installation, maintenance, and licensing of lifts and escalators in private and government buildings.

Kumar said residents hope that the Bill will be finally implemented.

READ | Two children among 6 trapped in Noida hospital lift for 30 minutes

“We have been fighting to get this Act for a long time, and several people have lost their lives in the meantime in lift accidents. We hope now the government will take it seriously and finally implement the Act in the state…we welcome the government’s decision to implement the act,” he said.

Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh, who had written to the state power minister for “immediate presentation” of the Lift and Escalators Safety Act in the upcoming session of the assembly last month, said the Act was proposed to be brought in the last session itself but the CM issued instructions to make it more accountable on the people installing lifts and escalators.

“…The draft will now will be tabled in the next Assembly session and will likely be passed into an Act then,” he added.