The Maharashtra energy department (MED) will ask for a report from the Mumbai Fire Brigade on the number of no-objection certificates (NOCs) issued to high-rises for fire-evacuation lifts, starting from 2018, according to Uday Dambe, a MED official.
Dambe said, “We have data on 50 projects, showing that gondola lifts, mainly used to carry construction material, have been installed. Such lifts will not serve the purpose of evacuation in case of a fire. Therefore, we will ask the fire brigade to issue notices to these developers to install standard-quality lifts.”
The department will also identify buildings where such poor quality lifts have been installed in name of fire evacuation lifts, he added. The official further asserted that big developers’ projects in Worli, Kanjurmarg, have fire-evacuation lifts of substandard quality.
“It is so alarming that we are already carrying out inspections of high-rise buildings,” he said.
Currently, the MED has 60 inspection engineers in Mumbai, 40 in Pune and 30 in Nashik. So far, these engineers were responsible for the inspection of regular lifts installed in buildings.
Dambe said that from now on, these inspection engineers would also inspect fire-evacuation lifts. When asked whether there was adequate manpower for the task, he replied, “Highrises are few in number, therefore it is easily possible.”
The MED inspectors also carry out annual inspections after awarding final certification. The certification is valid for 20 years, with an annual inspection exercise. The action comes in the backdrop of the advisory issued by the MED department on international standard specifications for the installation of fire-evacuation lifts, starting from July this year.
