Lift has free fall for eight floors, 9 of IT firm in Noida injured

NOIDA: Nine employees of an IT firm were injured when the lift they had boarded fell eight floors to the basement of a building offering coworking space in Sector 125 on Friday evening.

At least five persons were undergoing treatment for fractures and other injuries in the ICU of a private hospital on Friday night, police said. The others were said to be stable.

The nine injured persons were identified as Piyush (22), Abhishek Kumar (23), Abhishek Gupta (24), Saurabh Katiya (28), Rajat Sharma (29), Saurabh Bhardwaj (22), Yashu Sharma (23), Sagar (25) and Abhijeet Singh (23). Residents of Noida, Ghaziabad and Delhi, they worked with Erasmith Technologies, a web development company whose office is on the eighth floor of River-Side Towerr.

The lift collapse occurred around 5.45pm, when the eight were headed home. One of them - Sagar - told TOI from his hospital bed that the same lift had malfunctioned and got stuck on the fourth floor a few days ago.

"I suffered an injury near the left eye. No sooner did we board the lift, it had a free fall and landed with a thud in the basement. We bumped against the walls of the lift under the impact and suffered injuries. Some of us had fractures in the limbs. It could have been a lot worse," he added.

Kajal Sharma was headed to the hospital to see her brother when TOI contacted her. "My brother suffered a fracture in the hand. We got information only around 7.35pm and are on our way to the hospital," she said.

ACP Rajneesh Verma said they received a call within minutes of the collapse. "A police team was rushed to the spot and the nine injured persons were taken out of the lift and sent to a private hospital. The building has offices of several firms," he added.

DCP Harish Chander said two officials linked to the firm responsible for maintaining lifts had been taken into custody. Police were in the process of registering an FIR for negligence on Friday night. Officials of the maintenance firm could not be contacted for a comment.

With lift malfunctions on the rise, the UP government is planning to pass a legislation to make elevators safer for users. The legislation will include mandatory maintenance of elevators every year, their registration and penal action against agencies concerned in cases of negligence.

The draft of this Act has been pending with the government for several years now. Although proposals were submitted by the Noida Authority in 2015 and 2018, the Act is yet to be implemented. The Ghaziabad Development Authority also submitted a file to the government in 2018, making a similar plea.