The thwack of a tennis ball assembly a wood bat echoed by the basement of a modest five-storey condominium block in Suraram, a fast-growing suburb in north Hyderabad, about an hour’s drive from town centre. It was a heat Sunday afternoon in April, and 34-year-old Akbar Patel was doing what he cherished most — spending time along with his three younger youngsters. Their not too long ago bought flat got here with a cellar and Akbar, a registered medical practitioner, had turned it right into a makeshift play zone. The ball soared, the kids laughed, and for a fleeting second, the air, thick with cement mud and contemporary paint, was stuffed with pleasure.

The laughter got here to an abrupt halt when the ball fell into an oblong gap within the wall — a wierd, uncovered opening that supplied a direct view into the elevator shaft. Everybody had seen it however none had questioned it. The ball dropped into the void.

Akbar leaned in, simply barely, to fetch it. At that very second, somebody above pressed the raise button. The counterweight, a hulking slab of steel engineered to steadiness the raise’s movement, hurtled down the shaft. It struck Akbar with brutal precision, he held on to his life earlier than succumbing painfully.

His youngsters, surprised into stillness, screamed. They scrambled to the elevator, frantically urgent buttons with their little fingers, and making an attempt to calling for assist. However there was no raise operator, no watchman, no emergency alarm.

Two flooring above, Bismilla Begum stood on the range, making ready a particular Sunday meal. She had no thought her husband had simply been crushed. By the point neighbours and emergency providers arrived, Akbar had breathed his final.

Two weeks later, the crimson colored blood nonetheless stains the wall of the raise shaft — streaked from the bottom of the odd, unfinished cutout all the way in which right down to the ground. The opening stays as a gaping reminder of a builder’s oversight and a system’s indifference.

Paradoxically, simply three hours earlier than the incident, residents had held a gathering to flag critical security considerations within the constructing. The very cutout was high of the record.

“He couldn’t attend the assembly as a result of he was with a affected person,” says Pranay Kumar (identify modified), a neighbour. “However he referred to as afterwards. We spoke for 45 minutes, about that hole, the lacking raise operator, the unsecured staircases, incomplete switchboard, absence of primary lights. We determined to confront the builder. That was about half-hour earlier than he died,” he provides.

Simply 9 months earlier, the Patels had moved in, buying and selling years of financial savings and hope for a ₹50-lakh condominium they thought could be their endlessly residence. Now, that residence stands hole.

Within the foyer, his youngsters sit barefoot close to the railing, staring out onto the lane as if ready for his or her father to return. Outdoors their door, slippers lie scattered, left behind by kin and neighbours who maintain coming, surprised and grieving. The raise now stands defunct, unmoving.

The incident, reported in a newly-constructed condominium constructing has raised critical considerations in regards to the high quality, security, and set up requirements of raise infrastructure. “The builder left the hole uncovered; no security or glass strip was put in. It was meant for air flow, however the lack of protection exhibits clear negligence. Whereas the primary ground has a grille, the cellar was utterly unprotected, which led to this accident,” factors out B. Narsing Rao, president of Telangana Elevators and Escalators Affiliation.

Residents say they’d repeatedly flagged the dearth of primary security, however all they ever acquired in return had been imprecise assurances and delayed guarantees. Because the incident, the builder has gone lacking — his telephone switched off, his workplace locked.

“It was a catastrophe ready to occur,” says one other resident. “If a raise operator or technician had been round to halt the elevator or name for assist, Akbar might need made it. He fought for 10 agonising minutes. His youngsters noticed him battle.”

Akbar Patel’s loss of life on April 13 wasn’t an remoted accident; it’s a part of a disturbing development. Within the first 4 months of 2025 alone, Telangana has recorded 5 deadly lift-related incidents. The opposite 4 victims embody Narender (4) from Mujtaba Flats in Asif Nagar (Hyderabad), Gangaram (59), in-charge commandant of the seventeenth Battalion of the Telangana Particular Police from Sircilla district, Aarnav Mashalkar (6) from Mangalhat (Hyderabad), and S.Sarojanamma (50), who was killed within the raise of a hospital in Khammam whereas being shifted from one ward to a different on a stretcher submit surgical procedure.

When security took a backseat

In Hyderabad’s Shanti Nagar Colony, the orderly calm of Maphar Comfortek, a two-decade-old five-storey condominium, shattered on February 21. Six-year-old Aarnav Mashalkar, visiting his aunt whereas his mother and father had been at work, was picked up from faculty by his grandfather. A minor change in routine that afternoon proved tragically irreversible.

“Usually I’m residence by 3.30 p.m. and I stick with Aarnav whereas my mother and father go to go to my sister. However that day, my father needed to take him. Now he can’t forgive himself. He’s drowning in guilt,” says Aarnav’s father, Ajay Kumar Mashalkar.

Aarnav was enthusiastic about performing in his faculty’s annual day on March 9 and had not too long ago requested for a brand new bicycle — one his father promised to get after the present.

However on that fateful day in February, as Aarnav entered the raise at his aunt’s condominium along with his grandfather close by, the elevator all of a sudden jolted upward with its gate nonetheless open. The boy tried to leap out as he was being dragged up, however he slipped. His higher physique was wedged inside, his legs dangling exterior because the raise continued to rise, triggering a blur of panic, screams and helplessness.

A frantic two-hour rescue operation adopted. Ajay rushed again from his Banjara Hills workplace inside half an hour, however by the point Aarnav was pulled out and brought to Niloufer Hospital, it was too late. “There was no blood circulation to his mind for almost three hours,” Ajay recollects. Aarnav suffered a stroke and died the following afternoon. He was their solely baby.

Residents now recall previous glitches — just like the raise shifting earlier than the gates shut. In its 20 years, the constructing’s elevator had by no means undergone a correct overhaul.

“It wasn’t a freak accident,” says a resident who has briefly taken over constructing affairs. “There had been points. The raise was ageing and erratic. It moved earlier than it ought to have, and a toddler died due to it,” she shares.

Because the tragedy, the outdated raise has been scrapped and changed with a contemporary, enclosed, computerized system. However for Aarnav’s household — and lots of residents — that gives little solace.

“He was so excited,” Ajay murmurs. “Every single day he practised his steps for the varsity perform. He stored reminding me in regards to the bicycle.”

Pressing name for laws, oversight

Director Normal of Telangana Catastrophe Response and Hearth Providers Y.Nagi Reddy says elevator security in Telangana stays largely unregulated. “We now have the tools and coaching to deal with lift-related emergencies and rescue operations, however in relation to regulation and oversight, it’s nonetheless a gray space,” he notes.

A senior official from the Division of Electrical Inspectorate (DEI), Telangana, wishing to stay nameless, says security requirements are in place, however no devoted regulatory physique or Act to implement that. “And it’s not simply in regards to the manufacturing requirements; the set up course of should additionally adhere to requirements, that are utterly not thought-about,” the official factors out.

The result’s a “fragmented system” the place unlicensed and unregulated distributors function freely. “A number of small-scale operators set up lifts with out correct coaching, with out approvals and sometimes with no regard for normal security norms. There isn’t a oversight, and nobody is checking if these installations are even secure,” he provides.

Narsing Rao says not less than 200 to 300 unlawful elevator producers are working in Telangana. “There may very well be extra. And most don’t also have a GST quantity, not to mention a licence,” he argues, including that even these concerned in installations are sometimes inexperienced.

Taking inspiration from elevator legislations in Haryana and Mumbai, which mandate licensing, common security inspections, licensed operators, strict compliance with technical requirements and life span, the Telangana Electrical Inspectorate had proposed a Carry Act for the State way back to 2015. Nonetheless, it continues to assemble mud.

“There was no ahead motion on the proposed Act. What we want urgently is not only laws, but in addition devoted manpower inside the electrical division. We want the capability to examine and audit installations frequently,” the DEI official says.

Poor upkeep is one other critical concern flagged by a number of officers. “Most condominium buildings don’t have an annual upkeep contract,” rues Narsing Rao.

“Nobody is monitoring raise maintenance. We see instances the place the ropes holding the raise aren’t checked, door mechanisms fail, or the touchdown doorways open earlier than the raise even reaches the ground. These are recurring points, and each is life-threatening,” the DEI official asserts.

He goes on to focus on a serious hole: most residential buildings lack educated technical workers to handle raise operations. “After building, builders hand over the property to residents, who’re then anticipated to supervise every little thing, together with raise upkeep. However residents lack the technical experience. Anticipating them to deal with such complicated techniques is unsafe,” he says.

Regulatory void

Though the Bureau of Indian Requirements (BIS) has issued detailed security pointers for lifts underneath IS 17900 Half 1 and a couple of, not a single licence has been issued underneath these requirements up to now.

Scientist and joint director at BIS-Hyderabad Thammadi Sujatha says raise regulation at the moment rests with particular person States. “There isn’t a central High quality Management Order mandating compliance. Except a State enacts a legislation to implement BIS requirements, we can not difficulty licences to producers,” she explains.

Within the absence of such a legislation in Telangana, a lot of native raise producers proceed to function with out scrutiny, sidestepping important security checks and widening the regulatory vacuum.

The BIS has issued two core paperwork outlining raise security. Half 1, titled ‘Security Guidelines’, covers vital measures in opposition to mechanical and electrical hazards, emergency response protocols, automotive and shaft dimensions, and security gadgets to guard customers underneath regular and disaster situations. Half 2, ‘Design Guidelines, Calculations, Examinations, and Exams of Carry Elements’, lays out detailed technical procedures for evaluating the structural integrity and efficiency of raise elements. It aligns carefully with worldwide requirements, together with ISO 8100-2:2019.

These are periodically up to date by the BIS technical committee ETD 25, accountable for lifts, escalators, and shifting walkways. “Requirements are reviewed each 5 years to mirror advances in expertise and evolving security wants,” Sujatha notes.

Within the meantime, officers insist that pressing interim steps are wanted. Each residential constructing with lifts, they are saying, will need to have educated operators on-site — people able to dealing with routine upkeep and reacting swiftly in emergencies.

The senior official from the Telangana Electrical Inspectorate says that accountability can not cease at set up: “Producers and installers ought to keep engaged post-handover, guiding residents on periodic checks, servicing schedules and primary troubleshooting. In any other case, we’re leaving complicated machines within the palms of untrained folks.”

(Edited by Shilpi Sampad)