People’s Action Party (PAP) has announced that all 15 town councils under its charge will allocate $45 million over the next five years to improve the safety and reliability of lifts.
The PAP Town Councils’ Coordinating Chairman Mr Teo Ho Pin said in a press release that the PAP Town Council Lift taskforce had four recommendations which have been accepted by the 15 PAP town councils.
The recommendations are:
- To implement steps to enhance the safety of lifts.
- To improve lift servicing and maintenance regime.
- To monitor the performance of lifts and lift contractors.
- To work with HDB for protocols on lifts.
PAP said that the taskforce also recommended that the town councils install lift surveillance systems that can provide around the clock monitoring for security and safety purposes.
There are five critical lift components in which the town councils are recommended to carry out additional checks and adopt preventive maintenance. The components are door mechanisms, inductor switch, brakes, over-speed governor and levelling system, that the town councils are recommended during servicing to enhance lift safety
The number of lift landings, the design of lifts and the new Building and Construction Authority (BCA) requirements are also the based among the recommendation that all town councils should revise the minimum time allocated for lift servicing
The taskforce said that based on a time motion study conducted by the Lift Taskforce, an average of 100 minutes per lift for lift servicing subject to the number of lift landings is recommended.
Another recommendation is to provide a joint dashboard management system to monitor the performance of lifts and lift contractors, as well as a lift surveillance system for all lifts.
In addition, the PAP town councils stated that it will also undergo the optional Lift Enhancement Programme. It said that the programme will see the Government set aside about $450 million over 10 years to co-fund 90 per cent of modernisation works on lifts, while the remaining cost would be paid by the town council.
It also noted that the LEP will also be a priority for the town councils over the next 10 years based, on the age and performance of the lifts.
Aljunied-Hougang Town Council which is run by Workers’ Party has also announced that it will bring forward its lift replacement programme ahead of the 28-years timeline set by the Housing Development Board.
Over the past few months, a number of lift incidents took place around the island which resulted in injuries and even death, where a 77-year-old wheelchair bound man passed away when his wheelchair fell backwards and cracked his skull. He was about to got off one of the lift at Block 247 Pasir Ris Street 21, situated in Pasir Punggol GRC. The lift was misaligned by 25cm above the ground when it opened at the ground floor.