Noida: Two residents of Ajnara Homes in Greater Noida West were trapped in lifts of L tower within hours on Friday morning, days after 14 people were stranded in another tower, renewing concerns over lift safety and maintenance in the society. Residents blamed the builder for poor maintenance, leading to frequent lift malfunction incidents.The first incident occurred around 6 am, when a woman took the lift to her 20th-floor home after picking flowers for puja. It stopped on the 18th floor, dropped to the 9th floor, and stopped. The woman claimed that she was not carrying a mobile phone, so she tried to use the alarm bell and intercom, but neither worked.She banged on the door, but no guard was nearby. “I was too scared by now, as I had spent nearly 5 minutes inside the lift. Since it was early morning, there was no help available,” said the woman, who did not wish to be named. After pressing the buttons for several floors, she got out on the 3rd floor. She waited for a few minutes before taking the lift home, “fearing all the way lest it should stop again”, she said.Within 1.5 hours, another resident got stuck in another lift of the same tower. Resident Pankaj Pandey, who lives on the 4th floor, told TOI that he was woken by cries for help around 7.30 am. “A resident who had taken the lift from the basement was stuck inside the elevator on the floor and was banging the door for help. I tried opening the lift door, but it barely moved beyond inches,” he said. Maintenance staff opened it with a lift key, but by then the man had already spent over 20 minutes inside the lift.AOA president Chandan Sinha said it was not the first such incident. On Oct 5 evening, 14 residents of Tower M were trapped for nearly 20 minutes when a lift stalled between floors, among them five children, three women and senior citizens. He said the emergency intercom and security alarm failed. “Residents of nearby flats finally alerted maintenance staff after hearing the frightened children screaming and pounding on the elevator doors,” Sinha said.He added that the builder’s maintenance agency cited financial constraints as the reason for poor maintenance. The society has 2,600 units across 15 towers and about 10,000 people, all under builder maintenance. Several residents had stopped paying maintenance charges for four months to protest against the frequent plaster fall cases and unsanitary conditions in the basements.Residents, meanwhile, claimed the society’s lifts were not serviced as the Uttar Pradesh Lifts and Escalators Act, 2024, requires. “The society management failed to complete mandatory elevator registrations and regular technical servicing too,” said a resident.The Act requires all lifts and escalators to be registered within six months of its implementation on Sept 25, 2024, by RWAs or AOAs in residential societies and by the maintenance agency or developer where none exists. It requires all lifts to have automatic rescue devices, emergency bells, lighting, communication systems and CCTV, plus a comprehensive annual maintenance contract with the original equipment manufacturer or an authorised agency, monthly checks and biannual mock drills.
The Act says accidents causing injury or death must be reported to the district magistrate or local police within 24 hours, followed by a joint inquiry. Operators are also required to keep an accident logbook or face a penalty.Noida and Greater Noida have more than 80,000 lifts.A Schindler India technician earlier told TOI that a lift’s automatic rescue device (ARD) uses a rechargeable battery or UPS, takes the lift to the nearest floor, and opens the doors so passengers can safely exit in the event of a power failure, one of the main reasons behind lifts malfunctioning. Without an ARD, the lift can stop anywhere after a power failure, and its doors remain shut. The lift malfunction at Ajnara Homes, however, was not triggered by a power failure.Estate manager Rajendra Kumaria, who oversees maintenance, did not respond to calls and messages.
