In a major development, BMC has made it mandatory to install fire evacuation lifts in high rise buildings. In case of fire a normal elevator cannot be used, an evacuation elevator can evacuate 100 people in 2 minutes. This lift can be a life saver for firemen and citizens. A fire brigade official said that Mumbai now requires installation of evacuation lifts in buildings of height 70 metres (about 22 floors) and above. Buildings which do not install these lifts will not get NOC from the fire brigade. The state government had issued a circular in this regard last year, but now the municipality is going to strictly implement it. A fire evacuation lift is a special lift. It is designed to be fire resistant for at least 2 hours.
According to the official, a few minutes of awareness and rescue is crucial in case of fire. In such a situation, a fire evacuation lift will be very important. A vision panel sensor is installed in the lift. In this, the number of fire brigade, police, society president and members will be given. This lift will send an alert to all people as soon as there is a fire. This will alert people and help and rescue operations can be started soon. Also, people will be able to get out of the building during the fire by themselves.Through the vision panel, one can see down where the fire has started. It also has a two-way system. A person sitting in an elevator can initiate a rescue operation by contacting the person sitting below. Not only this, there is also a trap door at the top in case someone gets stuck in the elevator. The person can be easily taken out by opening the trap door. These elevators will not contain fire or smoke, so no one will suffer during rescue in case of fire. The price of these lift ranges from INR 50 lakh to INR 1 crore.