Power department’s sole lift repaired swiftly after TOI report

PANAJI: Smarting under a report carried by TOI in its May 16 edition titled, “Sole lift in power department’s head office lies defunct for almost a month”, power department officials moved swiftly to get the lift repaired on Tuesday. The repairs of the lift, facilitating movement up to the fifth floor of Vidyut Bhavan, brought much relief to power consumers—who go to the department for official business like correction of bills—as well as to department staff. Many consumers and department staff called TOI through the day for TOI’s intervention in the form of the news report.Attempts were made to claim that the lift was repaired on May 16 but when TOI went to take pictures, the lift was found non-functional. Even the sarcastic poster pasted on the lift door mocking department officials for failing to repair the lift was intact on Saturday.T A Verghese, the department’s PRO, had on Friday said that OTIS, the lift manufacturer, was not heeding to department requests to repair the lift. On Tuesday, he said that he told OTIS officials that if they did not repair the lift, their operations with other government departments would be affected.OTIS representatives had a different story to tell. In an email to TOI on Saturday itself, OTIS officials said that the annual maintenance contract (AMC) for the Vidyut Bhavan lift had expired almost two years ago and that the electricity department had not renewed it despite repeated reminders.Said OTIS officials, “We submitted the proposal for AMC renewal which covers repairs and replacements of spare parts back in the month of December 2014.”OTIS officials claimed that many other Goa government departments have OTIS lifts. “Many of these departments have signed AMCs with us while others are being currently tendered out,” the said.In their email on Saturday, OTIS officials said that they have been maintaining the Vidyut Bhavan lift for the last 40 years, adding, “And we have adequate spare parts to provide as required. We can put the system back into operation within a few hours of us getting the approval from the department and are happy to work with them to resolve the issue.”Verghese told TOI on Tuesday that the OTIS AMC has still not been signed but that he was signing it soon. The AMC amount is about 34,000, he said.