Lift malfunctions are common in high-rises, we are aware and used to it, but if that happen to pose a life-threatening situation, then?
One such incident happened at Greater Noida West’s Paramount Emotions society on Sunday evening when a family of four, including their two-month-old girl, got stuck in a lift for precisely 1 hour and 18 minutes! They took the lift to reach their flat, which is on Tower-R’s sixth floor.
While talking to City Spidey, Kapil Sharma narrated his ordeal, “The moment I with my wife, son and baby girl entered the lift and pressed the button, the door of the lift got shut but it did not move. Initially, we thought that it will start working in a few minutes or so but that did not happen. Realising the situation, I pressed the alarm button to alert the management team but there was no response at all. Besides, my mobile signal was dead and there was no intercom facility given in the lift. I kept thumping the door too so that someone could hear and rescue us.”
“Thirty-forty minutes passed and my son told me that he was feeling little drowsy. That made me and my wife panic because we were carrying our two-month-old baby with us, what about her? I was hoping that someone could get to hear our voices and rescue us somehow. Imagine, the door of the lift got shut at 6:30 pm and exactly at 7:48 pm, it was opened after some of the security guards heard the sound and alerted the management team. I mean, this was the first time in my life I had experienced something of this sort,” Sharma added.
When we enquired about the incident and tried to know the reason behind the delay, we were informed by the management that at present, only two families are living in Tower-R and therefore, residents from other towers did not have slightest of the idea about the lift and its operations.
When we spoke to Sangam Tripathi, head of the maintenance department, to know the reason behind the malfunction, he told City Spidey, “Actually, the incident happened due to the fluctuation in voltage. Generally, when voltage fluctuates and it is loaded, the system automatically operates and the lift gets fixed on a particular floor so that the lift does not fall instantly. The problem occurred because auto rescue device system of the lift failed and therefore, the door could not open.”
Though Tripathi agreed to the fact the family got stuck for over an hour in the lift.
“We have taken a serious note and assured that an intercom facility will be available soon in all 36 lifts operating in different towers of the society,” Tripathi added.
A total of 1714 flats are there in the society, out of which, only 119 have been occupied so far.
