New Delhi, Sep 16 : Following the deadly lift accident in Greater Noida on Friday, in which eight construction workers were killed, a survey on Saturday revealed that 83 per cent of Noida residents, who use lifts, had one or more family members getting stuck in a lift in the last three years, which is far worse than the national average of 58 per cent.
The ‘India Lift Safety’ survey conducted by LocalCircles had 5,171 respondents living in Noida and Greater Noida.
Out of them, 62 per cent were men while 38 per cent were women.The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in it.
The survey report said, “Lifts do require rigorous maintenance as they are expected to function properly till the life of the buildings, which may be five or more decades.”
To a question in the survey — in the last three years, how many times has it happened that you or someone close to you in your residential building got stuck in one of the lifts or had a safety incident, the query received 1,719 responses with “83 per cent of those surveyed indicating with surety that they or someone living in their building has experienced such incidents more than once in the last three years”.
It also said that among those who have experienced or have someone close to them experience such incidents, 51 per cent indicated that it has happened “1-2 times”, 22 per cent indicated it has happened “3-5 times” in the last three years while 10 per cent respondents reported “6-9 times”.
“Of the remaining, 2 per cent stated that such incidents have ‘happened but can’t say how many times’, 3 per cent stated it has ‘never happened in the last three years’ and 12 per cent expressed relief that ‘never happened luckily’,” the report highlighted.
The survey report said that the percentage of Noida lift users who have had a family member getting stuck in a lift in the last three years is much higher at 83 per cent as compared to the 58 per cent national average.
It also said that New Indian Standard IS 17491:2020 on lifts was released by BIS in 2022, to guide users on enhanced safety features and upgrades required for old lifts running in the building.
However, the country lacks mandatory standards for maintenance of lifts and most states do not have a state lift act to enforce standards, thereby leaving the safety of lifts in the hands of society or property managers, AOA functionaries, lift owners, untrained staff in societies and third-party lift maintenance contractors.
The survey also said that as the previous national survey had revealed that there is a lackadaisical attitude to lift maintenance in some housing societies, which have mushroomed in small towns, the survey sought to know ‘how are the lifts in your residential building (society or house) maintained’.
The query received 1,687 responses with 33 per cent of those surveyed indicating that it is ‘maintained by the lift manufacturer’, 38 per cent stating that it is ‘maintained by a third party contractor’, 22 per cent stating that it is ‘maintained by our society staff or other miscellaneous staff’, and most worrying response by 7 per cent of respondents was that ‘no one maintains other than on call in case of issues’.
It further said that given the lack of adherence to safety rules, the survey next asked Noida residents that do they believe the government should create mandatory standards for lift maintenance and enforcement, to which out of 1,765 respondents, 78 per cent stated that ‘yes, this is a must’ while the remaining 22 per cent of Noida residents expressed apprehension that ‘no, this will cause more problems or will never get implemented’.
It said that In summary, given that 83 per cent of Noida and Greater Noida residents have had one or more family members getting stuck in a lift in the last three years as compared to the national average of 58 per cent indicates that the situation in the city is far worse.
It said given that most new buildings and apartment complexes in Noida and Greater Noida have lifts and given that the country does not have lift maintenance standards and the state a lift act, the district or its two authorities of Noida and Greater Noida must consider forming a set of standard rules to maintain lifts along with a systems driven annual inspection process.
With all installations given a set timeframe to comply or being required to shut their lifts is the only way lift related accidents can be minimized, it added.
The survey was done after eight construction workers died in Greater Noida after a lift at an under construction group housing society fell on September 16.
A month ago, an elderly lady residing in a Noida society passed away after getting stuck in a lift for nearly one hour.
Though the Noida administration has announced conducting a survey across lift installations, in absence of a state lift act and mandatory maintenance standards in the country, Noida residents aren’t optimistic about the move yielding much.
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