Most Residential High-Rises In Major Gujarat Cities Lack Big Elevators

Multiple high-rise residential buildings have come up in major cities of Gujarat over the past two years. Until 2021, realtors could build as high as 70 metres. This effectively meant that a building would have not more than 22 floors. That year, the state government via a notification allowed buildings 100 metres high or more in five cities – Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Surat and Rajkot. This increased the floor number to a maximum of 41.

But the Gujarat General Development Control Regulations (GDCR), which help authorities implement a plan-led system for urbanisation by taking public opinion into account, did not make big elevators mandatory in high-rises. Other buildings-related regulations too did not explicitly mention lifts for medical evacuation.

Under the GDCR, there are two categories for elevator installation in tall buildings. For a building with a height of 10-21 metres, at least one elevator is needed. However, if the building has more than 30 units, one lift is mandatory for every additional 30 units. For buildings having a height between 21 metres and 70 metres, at least two lifts are mandatory, provided there is one lift for every 30 units.

The Gujarat urban development department is the nodal agency that deals with the clearance of tall buildings (100m-150m). A source there said the department has permitted 28 tall buildings after the high-rises were allowed in 2021. Out of these, 25 are in Ahmedabad, and one each in Surat, Gandhinagar and Baroda. The skyscrapers in Ahmedabad have a permitted height between 101.27 metres and 145 metres.

Buyers, sometimes, spend up to Rs 10 crore to buy a luxury flat in these skyscrapers. Yet, it is surprising that they don’t ask for an elevator that can come handy if they face an emergency or need to be moved out of the buildings on a stretcher. Builders usually install four lifts in these highrises, but buyers could have sought one of these to be converted to allow them to move stretchers. Because of their casual attitude or ignorance, some of them had to suffer dearly.

An elderly resident of a high-rise building in Ahmedabad passed away at a hospital recently. His family wanted to bring the body home to let his well-wishers pay their last respects before taking it to the crematorium. However, there was no elevator big enough to take the body to their 20th-floor residence.

At another multi-storey building in the city, a woman was wounded after the false ceiling on the 22nd floor fell on her. The family had to tie the woman to a straight plywood sheet with clothes and bring her down in the lift vertically.

Chief Town Planner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja said high-rise buildings require an elevator big enough to accommodate a stretcher or carry large goods. However, he added, there’s no specific regulation for this currently, including in the GDCR. If need arises in the future, this matter will be considered.

According to the chief electrical inspector’s office, Ahmedabad, around 36,500 lifts have been installed across the city by March this year. In the past one year only, more than 3,600 lifts were installed. Across the state, 1,10,788 lifts were installed by March this year. In the past one year, more than 10,800 lifts were installed.