Mumbai: Lift crashes from fourth floor, 12 people injured

Trade World building where the lift crashed. Pic/Ashish Raje

Twelve people escaped with minor injuries when a lift carrying them crashed from the fourth floor of the C-wing of Trade World building, at Kamala Mills compound in Lower Parel, on Wednesday. While 11 of them were rushed to Parel's Global Hospital by bystanders, one person was taken to the BMC-run King Edward Memorial Hospital. The maintenance manager claimed the lift was maintained regularly, while a member of his team said it was to be replaced.

Dr Jigna Rudradatta Shrotriya, head medical administrator at Global Hospital, said it received four female patients and seven male patients, and neither sustained major injuries. "Fractures were ruled out in all of them after doing X-rays," she said. After observation, all the 11 patients were discharged.

Dr Karthik Mudaliar, who attended to the patient at KEM, said the patient had no internal or external injuries and was sent home after a check-up.

Vinod Tripathi, the security guard of C wing where the crash happened, said, "The lift was going up and suddenly started descending before it reached the fifth floor. It happened in just a few minutes. Four or five people likely had minor injuries."

PSI Sagar Parkale from NM Joshi Marg police station said none of the victims want to register a complaint.

The team from the Chief Electrical Inspector's Department, which gave the licence for the lift to be operational, inspected it after the incident. They are also reviewing the documents and previous records of annual visits.

Uday Dambe, the inspector from the elevator division of the department, said that during their annual inspection, they had recommended a few corrections for a lift in the building. "We are checking if the same lift crashed," Dambe said.

The building's maintenance manager, Sarvesh Khadye, however, told mid-day that the lift was maintained on a monthly basis.

However, Harman D'Mello, a member of his team, said, "The lift is being maintained by a private company called HMAV. But we were in the process of replacing the lift."