“The increasing demand for elevators and escalators is estimated at 20 per cent, annually, in Mumbai. The sad part is that despite lift sales booming, there exist only ‘recommended’ safety standards and not ‘mandatory’ standards. Mumbai still relies on the archaic Bombay Lifts Act, 1958. Every lift should be checked twice in a year by the government agencies, but this is rarely done physically, although it is shown on paper,” laments Sharma. Advocate Vinod Sampat says it should go beyond legal issues. “It is a matter of safety. Human lives are at stake,” he says. “The residents and the managing committees of residential housing societies should not neglect their responsibilities. Currently, the trend is that the cheapest contractor gets the maintenance job. This needs to change,” he insists. Sharma points out that inspection of lifts is done by the Public Works Department of the state government. In Mumbai, there are less than 50 PWD engineers and there are more than 40,000 l