TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: They were finally rescued after more than an hour-long ordeal in a lift, but not before exposing hollow the functioning of the lift system in the imposing South Goa District Collectorate building on Monday evening.
As the authorities launched the rescue operation, realisation dawned that the backup generators had failed, while the batteries of the inverters supporting the elevators had already discharged. Left with no option and with cries for help coming from the stranded individuals, including two ladies, the lift was brought down from the first floor with the help of a computer UPS, bringing sigh of relief for the trapped persons as well as the citizens and officials outside.
The incident occurred shortly after 4 pm when the citizens were trapped inside the lift following a power failure. As there was no help forthcoming from outside, one of the ladies called up Usha, wife of Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, narrating their ordeal inside the lift.
Taken off guard by the malfunctioning lift, Collectorate officials maintained that the Collectorate was hit by power failure since morning due to a cable fault. They admitted that the backup generators proved no help in the rescue operation, while the batteries of the invertors had already discharged by then for want of power supply.
Fire services personnel informed that the Collectorate lift system are gearless and cannot be operated manually. It was only after an UPS from the office was connected to the system that the lift came down on the ground floor.
A resident of Fatorda Alison questioned the disaster management system in place in the imposing district Collectorate as it took over an hour to rescue the people trapped inside. “Just imagine that the people were trapped inside a lift for over an hour. This only goes to show the system failure in the Collectorate”, Alison said, while demanding a probe into the failures of the backup generators.
