There is just one engineer for more than 6,500 lifts each in Maharashtra. Shocking as it may be, Mumbai's public works department (PWD) has said there are 11 engineers to inspect 73,324 registered lifts in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Pune region.

The PWD has said this in response to an RTI application filed by Mohammad Afzal, a resident of Mumbai.

Afzal had demanded that information should be provided to him within 48 hours under section 7(1) of the Act as it was a matter of life and liberty. He gave recent examples of lift accidents in Mumbai, where people had either died or got injured.

“According to Section 11 of Bombay Lifts Act 1939, it is the responsibility of the state government to inspect each lift twice a year. Assuming that each engineer inspects 30 lifts per week, it will take around four years to inspect each lift even once,” said Afzal, who, on January 14, inspected the log book of the PWD’s lift, energy and labour department with RTI activist Krishnaraj Rao.

The inspection revealed that there had been 30 fatal accidents in lifts in Maharashtra in the last seven years.

“It is a problem of every big city. There is a grave lack of manpower,” said Afzal.

Afzal decided to file an RTI application after his brother, Mohammad Farooq, got trapped in the lift of a residential apartment on Yari road, in Andheri (West).