When lives fall through the cracks of an unregulated elevator system

The thwack of a tennis ball meeting a wooden bat echoed through the basement of a modest five-storey apartment block in Suraram, a fast-growing suburb in north Hyderabad, about an hour’s drive from the city centre. It was a warm Sunday afternoon in April, and 34-year-old Akbar Patel was doing what he loved most — spending time with his three young children. Their recently purchased flat came with a cellar and Akbar, a registered medical practitioner, had turned it into a makeshift play zone. The ball soared, the children laughed, and for a fleeting moment, the air, thick with cement dust and fresh paint, was filled with joy.

The laughter came to an abrupt halt when the ball fell into a rectangular hole in the wall — a strange, exposed opening that offered a direct view into the elevator shaft. Everyone had noticed it but none had questioned it. The ball dropped into the void.

Akbar leaned in, just slightly, to fetch it. At that very moment, someone above pressed the lift button. The counterweight, a hulking slab of metal engineered to balance the lift’s motion, hurtled down the shaft. It struck Akbar with brutal precision, he held on to his life before succumbing painfully.

His children, stunned into stillness, screamed. They scrambled to the elevator, frantically pressing buttons with their little fingers, and trying to calling for help. But there was no lift operator, no watchman, no emergency alarm.

Two floors above, Bismilla Begum stood at the stove, preparing a special Sunday meal. She had no idea her husband had just been crushed. By the time neighbours and emergency services arrived, Akbar had breathed his last.

Two weeks later, the crimson coloured blood still stains the wall of the lift shaft — streaked from the base of the odd, unfinished cutout all the way down to the floor. The opening remains as a gaping reminder of a builder’s oversight and a system’s indifference.

Ironically, just three hours before the incident, residents had held a meeting to flag serious safety concerns in the building. The very cutout was top of the list.

“He couldn’t attend the meeting because he was with a patient,” says Pranay Kumar (name changed), a neighbour. “But he called afterwards. We spoke for 45 minutes, about that gap, the missing lift operator, the unsecured staircases, incomplete switchboard, absence of basic lighting fixtures. We decided to confront the builder. That was about 30 minutes before he died,” he adds.

Just nine months earlier, the Patels had moved in, trading years of savings and hope for a ₹50-lakh apartment they thought would be their forever home. Now, that home stands hollow.

In the lobby, his children sit barefoot near the railing, staring out onto the lane as if waiting for their father to return. Outside their door, slippers lie scattered, left behind by relatives and neighbours who keep coming, stunned and grieving. The lift now stands defunct, unmoving.

The incident, reported in a newly-constructed apartment building has raised serious concerns about the quality, safety, and installation standards of lift infrastructure. “The builder left the gap exposed; no safety or glass strip was installed. It was meant for ventilation, but the lack of coverage shows clear negligence. While the first floor has a grille, the cellar was completely unprotected, which led to this accident,” points out B. Narsing Rao, president of Telangana Elevators and Escalators Association.

Residents say they had repeatedly flagged the lack of basic safety, but all they ever got in return were vague assurances and delayed promises. Since the incident, the builder has gone missing — his phone switched off, his office locked.

“It was a disaster waiting to happen,” says another resident. “If a lift operator or technician had been around to halt the elevator or call for help, Akbar might have made it. He fought for 10 agonising minutes. His children saw him struggle.”

Akbar Patel’s death on April 13 wasn’t an isolated accident; it is part of a disturbing trend. In the first four months of 2025 alone, Telangana has recorded five fatal lift-related incidents. The other four victims include Narender (4) from Mujtaba Apartments in Asif Nagar (Hyderabad), Gangaram (59), in-charge commandant of the 17th Battalion of the Telangana Special Police from Sircilla district, Aarnav Mashalkar (6) from Mangalhat (Hyderabad), and S.Sarojanamma (50), who was killed in the lift of a hospital in Khammam while being shifted from one ward to another on a stretcher post surgery.

When safety took a backseat

In Hyderabad’s Shanti Nagar Colony, the orderly calm of Maphar Comfortek, a two-decade-old five-storey apartment, shattered on February 21. Six-year-old Aarnav Mashalkar, visiting his aunt while his parents were at work, was picked up from school by his grandfather. A minor change in routine that afternoon proved tragically irreversible.

“Normally I am home by 3.30 p.m. and I stay with Aarnav while my parents go to visit my sister. But that day, my father had to take him. Now he can’t forgive himself. He is drowning in guilt,” says Aarnav’s father, Ajay Kumar Mashalkar.

Aarnav was excited about performing in his school’s annual day on March 9 and had recently asked for a new bicycle — one his father promised to get after the show.

But on that fateful day in February, as Aarnav entered the lift at his aunt’s apartment with his grandfather nearby, the elevator suddenly jolted upward with its gate still open. The boy tried to jump out as he was being dragged up, but he slipped. His upper body was wedged inside, his legs dangling outside as the lift continued to rise, triggering a blur of panic, screams and helplessness.

A frantic two-hour rescue operation followed. Ajay rushed back from his Banjara Hills office within half an hour, but by the time Aarnav was pulled out and taken to Niloufer Hospital, it was too late. “There was no blood circulation to his brain for nearly three hours,” Ajay recalls. Aarnav suffered a stroke and died the next afternoon. He was their only child.

Residents now recall past glitches — like the lift moving before the gates shut. In its 20 years, the building’s elevator had never undergone a proper overhaul.

“It wasn’t a freak accident,” says a resident who has temporarily taken over building affairs. “There had been issues. The lift was ageing and erratic. It moved before it should have, and a child died because of it,” she shares.

Since the tragedy, the old lift has been scrapped and replaced with a modern, enclosed, automatic system. But for Aarnav’s family — and many residents — that offers little solace.

“He was so excited,” Ajay murmurs. “Every day he practised his steps for the school function. He kept reminding me about the bicycle.”

Urgent call for legislation, oversight

Director General of Telangana Disaster Response and Fire Services Y.Nagi Reddy says elevator safety in Telangana remains largely unregulated. “We have the equipment and training to handle lift-related emergencies and rescue operations, but when it comes to regulation and oversight, it is still a grey area,” he notes.

A senior official from the Department of Electrical Inspectorate (DEI), Telangana, wishing to remain anonymous, says safety standards are in place, but no dedicated regulatory body or Act to enforce that. “And it’s not just about the manufacturing standards; the installation process must also adhere to standards, which are completely not considered,” the official points out.

The result is a “fragmented system” where unlicensed and unregulated vendors operate freely. “Several small-scale operators install lifts without proper training, without approvals and often with no regard for standard safety norms. There is no oversight, and no one is checking if these installations are even safe,” he adds.

Narsing Rao says at least 200 to 300 illegal elevator manufacturers are operating in Telangana. “There could be more. And most don’t even have a GST number, let alone a licence,” he argues, adding that even those involved in installations are often inexperienced.

Taking inspiration from elevator legislations in Haryana and Mumbai, which mandate licensing, regular safety inspections, certified operators, strict compliance with technical standards and life span, the Telangana Electrical Inspectorate had proposed a Lift Act for the State as far back as 2015. However, it continues to gather dust.

“There has been no forward movement on the proposed Act. What we need urgently is not just legislation, but also dedicated manpower within the electrical department. We need the capacity to inspect and audit installations regularly,” the DEI official says.

Poor maintenance is another serious concern flagged by several officials. “Most apartment buildings don’t have an annual maintenance contract,” rues Narsing Rao.

“No one is tracking lift upkeep. We see cases where the ropes holding the lift aren’t checked, door mechanisms fail, or the landing doors open before the lift even reaches the floor. These are recurring issues, and each one is life-threatening,” the DEI official asserts.

He goes on to highlight a major gap: most residential buildings lack trained technical staff to manage lift operations. “After construction, builders hand over the property to residents, who are then expected to oversee everything, including lift maintenance. But residents lack the technical expertise. Expecting them to handle such complex systems is unsafe,” he says.

Regulatory void

Although the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has issued detailed safety guidelines for lifts under IS 17900 Part 1 and 2, not a single licence has been issued under these standards so far.

Scientist and joint director at BIS-Hyderabad Thammadi Sujatha says lift regulation currently rests with individual States. “There is no central Quality Control Order mandating compliance. Unless a State enacts a law to enforce BIS standards, we cannot issue licences to manufacturers,” she explains.

In the absence of such a law in Telangana, a large number of local lift manufacturers continue to operate without scrutiny, sidestepping essential safety checks and widening the regulatory vacuum.

The BIS has issued two core documents outlining lift safety. Part 1, titled ‘Safety Rules’, covers critical measures against mechanical and electrical hazards, emergency response protocols, car and shaft dimensions, and safety devices to protect users under normal and crisis conditions. Part 2, ‘Design Rules, Calculations, Examinations, and Tests of Lift Components’, lays out detailed technical procedures for evaluating the structural integrity and performance of lift parts. It aligns closely with international standards, including ISO 8100-2:2019.

These are periodically updated by the BIS technical committee ETD 25, responsible for lifts, escalators, and moving walkways. “Standards are reviewed every five years to reflect advances in technology and evolving safety needs,” Sujatha notes.

In the meantime, officials insist that urgent interim steps are needed. Every residential building with lifts, they say, must have trained operators on-site — individuals capable of handling routine maintenance and reacting swiftly in emergencies.

The senior official from the Telangana Electrical Inspectorate says that responsibility cannot stop at installation: “Manufacturers and installers should stay engaged post-handover, guiding residents on periodic checks, servicing schedules and basic troubleshooting. Otherwise, we are leaving complex machines in the hands of untrained people.”

(Edited by Shilpi Sampad)