Nowadays multistoried and high-rise buildings are being constructed in the big cities; driven by the extreme necessity to accommodate more people through minimizing horizontal expansions as well as utilizing space-efficient strategy. It is envisaged that this trend would be spread over other cities in the near future. Lifts are part and parcel of multi-level buildings. Accordingly, safety aspects of lift in this country deserve much more attention to the authorities concerned. Moreover, the safety issue of a lift is as crucial as the safety concern of a building construction. There are furors from all quarters on the safety issues of a building; but ruefully nobody has yet pointed out this vital issue. As such, it has been a common scenario of getting stuck into a lift. If anyone did not have the experience, then he/she is lucky enough. But lift-chords having been torn off had resulted in the killing of occupants in some cases in the past. Without mentioning, the condition of lifts in general, even that of the lifts of hospitals, is not safe; where every minute is very important for saving patients' lives. People don't feel safe outside the home; now they don't even feel safe inside their own buildings. Then, where should they go for safety? This is a man-made condition. People are already afraid of natural catastrophes like earthquakes; because a strong earthquake (God forbid) might wreak havoc on people throughout the country.
These lifts are made by renowned manufacturers with worldwide reputation. These are also being supplied to many developed nations with reputation. But what is wrong with these reputed lifts in this country? Are these lifts really made by these renowned manufacturers? If really made by these manufacturers, did these lifts fail in quality checks? That is why they are cheaper to import; because every appliance should have 'quality pass' label. Interestingly, in the past, any malfunctioning or fake electronics goods were labelled as 'Jinjira made'; is it something like that? In this country, moral values have now almost eroded; everyone is looking for maximizing profit; although there are some exceptions also. This proposition is more pertinent for land developers, because a significant number of them construct low quality apartment buildings/shopping centres/markets installing low quality lifts; disregarding safety concerns of the users.
Every appliance has a service life; after its expiry it must be replaced or thoroughly overhauled. Is there any rule in this country for safe use of lifts? Lifts are much more risky instruments than many other appliances because no occupant could assess its condition from inside; setting aside its technical issues. Moreover, power outages are the most common feature in this country; consequently, installation of self-activated generators is crucial for safety of the occupants. As such, installation of self-activated generators should be made mandatory. Furthermore, the currently serving non-self-activated generators should be replaced with self-activated generators as soon as possible. In addition to that, faulty lifts at markets/storehouses should be confiscated; and importers of those should be handed exemplary punishment to deter the recurrence of accidents. Actually, in the developed nation, such crucial issues are harshly dealt with; as such, people hardly dare to engage in such unlawful activities. Therefore, the government has been requested to formulate appropriate rules to address these issues. Moreover, monitoring/condition assessments of presently serving lifts is also very important; therefore, appropriate steps in this regard are also very crucial. As such, the government has been requested to employ private agencies for monitoring/condition assessments of lifts that are currently in use; where Lift Engineers must be involved. Moreover, faulty lifts should be replaced immediately. A rejected lift could easily be passed off as a new/reconditioned one with some refurbishment and paintings; only a Lift Engineer or qualified technician could assess the real condition. But ruefully, Lift Engineers are rare in this country; as such, technicians are serving, in most of the cases. Consequently, the output is not satisfactory in many occasions; moreover, spare parts are not adequately available.
Thus, a uniform rule needs to be in place that should be applied throughout the country. But in this country, first level or ground floor is denoted either by 1 or G; thus it is creating confusion among the users. In the developed nations only one uniform rule is applied all over the country. Rectification of this issue is not a big deal nor does it require technical expertise. What is really necessary is the willingness and vigilance for all tiny to tidy issues. Accordingly, it has been proposed that ground floor should be assigned with 1st level; as it has more resemblance with Bengali terminology 'prothom or aktaala'; hence, rectification of 'G' is necessary. More surprisingly, mismatches have been observed in lift's caller-buttons. As they are marked by upward and downward arrows, which have universal connotation, in many cases, the buttons are wrongly assigned creating confusions among acquainted users; in particular.
Hence, the aforementioned points need to be pondered seriously with the increasing number of multi-level buildings. Therefore, the safety issues including all other issues are very concerning that need to be addressed properly. As such, the government has been kindly requested to appoint renowned foreign consultant(s) to ensure importing of world-standard lifts only. Also, the cost of faulty lifts should be borne by importers/associations concerned because they have failed to import quality lifts.
The writer is Traffic cum Road Safety Engineer. Email: himu120@yahoo.co.nz
All about lifts that need a facelift
Md Shamsul Arefin | Published: August 09, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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