Bureau of Indian Standards is the National Stan-dards body in India which is a Statutory Organi-zation formed through the enactment of BISAct(1986) working under the aegis of Central Gov-ernment of India. This is the only organization inIndia, which has the authority and the obligationto make and revise Indian Standards. BIS is an or-ganization similar to CSA, BSI, ANSI etc.in othercountries. As is known worldwide Standards arevoluntary and it depends on the users of the stan-dards (private/public/government) which influ-ences the implementation of the standards (In-ternational / National).

HierarchyThere are 14 Division Councils formed by BIS un-der the Standards Advisory Committee to devel-op Indian Standards on 14 major fields like Basicand Production Engineering, Chemical, Elec-trotechnical, Electronics, Food etc. Each DivisionCouncil has a number of Technical Committees,known as Sectional Committees working underthem, which takes care of specific subject area.The standards developed by the Technical Com-mittees and approved by the Division Councilare gazetted by BIS. The respective Technical Com-mittees have the full authority to decide the con-tent of the Indian Standard.

An overview of process of developing an Indi-an standard (specific to lifts and escalators)The Concerned Division Council approves the newSubjects taken up for standardization based onrecommendation of the Sectional Committees.

Standard related to Electri-cal field is governed by theElectro Technical DivisionCouncil (ETDC). There are37 Technical Committeesworking under ETDC.

ET 25 Lifts and EscalatorSectional Committee(Technical Committee) hasbeen assigned the work todevelop Indian Standardson Lifts and Escalators. TheSectional Committee ET 25is being represented by In-dustries, GovernmentAgencies related to Liftsand Escalators, Laborato-ries, Consumer Agenciesand major Consultants andUsers. The ultimate aimwhile preparing/develop-ing a standard is to protectthe consumer interest andNational Interest. As isprevalent in other coun-tries, all lift and escalatorinstallation and mainte-nance in India are requiredto be monitored/approvedby the provincial/state gov-ernment body (Lift Inspec-torates) due to high safetyfactor involved in usingthese facilities. The Stan-dards developed and pub-lished by the BIS are Gener-ic in nature. In addition toIndian standards, the StateLift Inspectorates havetheir specific requirements,which takes into accountvarious factors like build-ing structures and provin-cial regulations to name afew while installing eithera lift or escalator.

Considering all the above facts,the Sectional Committee ET 25 havebeen formed and represented by theall stakeholders including variousstate Lift Inspectorates, Private /Government Lift and EscalatorUsers, and Manufacturers. The Elec-trotechnical Division Council ap-points the Chairman of the com-mittee keeping in mind that the per-son who chairs the committeeshould be knowledgeable in thesubject, unbiased and always pro-tects the consumer and national In-terest. (Currently Maharastra PWDChief Engineer has been appointedas the Chairman of this committee).The committee work is coordinatedby the Member Secretary who is anofficer from BIS and helps the com-mittee in the whole process of for-mulating the standard.

Different stages of formulationof Indian standards on lifts andescalators1. Proposal stage / preliminarydraft / new work item proposalThe initial stage is the proposal stage.A subject is proposed by a propos-er(anybody) along with a technical draft (indi-vidual, manufacturing organization, users). Theproposal will be placed before the Technical Com-mittee (by calling a meeting) for approval to de-velop an Indian standard. Depending upon thetechnical content of the proposal, the Committeemay forward the proposal to a Technical sub-com-mittee/Panel for detailed review and comments.At present one of the Panel named as ET 25 /P4_is chaired by official from Maharashtra PWD. TheTechnical sub-committee comprises of a team ofexperts who review, discuss & debate the proposalreceived and forward their summarized com-ments to the technical committee. The proposalwith comments from the Panel is then discussedat the main ET 25 Technical Committee meeting,coordinated and organized by the Member Sec-retary where final decision is taken regardingapproval of the document.

This is true for revising of an existing standard.Once the ET 25 committee approves, the subjectwill be taken up for formulation/revision. TheMember Secretary circulates the preliminary draftto all the members of ET 25 for comments. .

2. Wide circulation stageThe comments received on the preliminary draftwill be discussed in the consequent meeting andany changes agreed upon will be incorporated inthe draft. Then the revised draft will now be cir-culated as a wide circulation document to all themembers of Technical Committee, members ofETDC and all those who are interested to get thewidest range of comments on the document. Thedocument is also hosted in BIS website and isavailable for public comments. This stage is veryimportant as this stage decides the major contentof the standard.

3. Final draft Indian standardThe comments received on the WC document arediscussed in the meeting for any changes. Anychanges agreed upon in the main meeting of ET25 will be incorporated in the draft and after ed-iting sent for printing. The technical committee,who has the final authority to decide and ap-prove the document, may decide to circulate itagain if it is found that the document has un-dergone major technical change since the lastcirculation.

4. Publication of Indian standardOnce the committee ET 25 finalizes the draft In-dian Standard, BIS get the formal approval fromthe ETDC chairman and publishes the IndianStandard.

It should be noted that the committee always works on consensus. There is no voting asin ISO / IEC.

The whole process of making / publishing a In-dian Standard takes on an average of 1-3 years.All the standards published by the committeeare reviewed and reaffirmed/revised within 5years. Amendments are issued from time to timeto take care of any technical advancement orchange. The committee considers revision onlyif a whole lot of requirements have to be changedin the standard. Otherwise, any minor changesare taken care by way of issuing amendments. Thesame procedure regarding formulation of Indianstandard enumerated above have to be followedwhile issuance of any amendments. However, thecommittee has the authority to issue a docu-ment waiving wide circulation stage in case of ex-igencies and the situation like printing errors.

Every 5 years circulars are sent to all the mem-bers listing all the standards which are 5 years oldfor their views / comments whether the stan-dard should be revised/reaffirmed. If no adversecomments are received the standards are reaf-firmed for another 5 years.

The Sectional Committee also has the authori-ty to form sub-committees/panels (The repre-sentation / composition decided by the sectionalcommittee) for specific subjects taking into con-sideration the urgency and specialization of thesubject to be dealt with. The subcommittees andpanels are small groups, which gives their rec-ommendations. The final decision lies with thesectional committee.

As mentioned earlier, all standards are volun-tary and the implementation lies with the con-cerned authorities (lift inspectorates of State Gov-ernments). Though generic requirements are com-plied by the manufacturers, specific requirementsdiffer from state to state which makes the situa-tion a bit difficult for the manufacturers. How-ever, the state lift inspectorates (members of ET25) are also being pursued to make a compendi-um of Lift rules, which augments the standardwith minimum variations.

Tak Mathews

In a recent statement, Otis’ LaurentBruyère stated that the first elevator inIndia was installed in 1892. PresumablyBruyère’s reference was to the elevatorinstalled at the Governor’s house inKolkata by Lord Curzon. Remnants of el-evators have also been found in somepalaces that out date the Governor’shouse. Considering that the first safe el-evator was invented in 1853, it could beconcluded that India was one of the firstcountries to get access to the technology.

Yet in the subsequent century the In-dian elevator industry had very littleambition to introduce new technologyor elevator speeds. While the OberoiTowers and Taj Towers had elevators at3.5mps, a speed of 2.5mps was consid-ered as the ultimate in high speed andluxury. Other than in Delhi, where Otis’AS Herwadkar and HH Varshenya drovethe specifications, a 2.5mps elevatorwas specified only if the circumstances(not necessarily the building height)forced the decision.

The Commerce Tower andKalpataru Heights with 2.5mps el-evators barely met the 60 secondsnorm for fire lifts. The BelvedereCourt fared a little better withspeeds of 3.5mps. The very high im-port duties also ensured that tech-nology was accessible only to thehotel chains that enjoyed importsubsides.

Most global players were reluc-tant to set up shop in India. Whilethe small market size was a deter-rent, the main discouragement wasthe low technology market thatcomprised mainly of low cost man-ual door lifts. Even today, India hasa sizeable manual door elevatormarket. In contrast neighbouringand less developed countries likeBangladesh and Nepal do not havesuch low technology elevators

Further, through the last centurythe general appetite in India for go-ing tall was limited. KalpataruHeights (144m) and BelvedereCourt (149m) completed in 2000were the closest to reaching for theskies. Not surprisingly the NationalBuilding Code of 2005 definedbuildings above 24m as being a highrise, which in itself was a revisionfrom the earlier 15m. In contrast theBrihanmumbai Municipal Corpora-tion defined a high rise as being over70m, which was a reflection thatmost of the taller buildings in Indiawere being constructed on the island cityof Mumbai.

At the turn of the century the Shree-pati Group, a company with little con-

struction history, redefined the Indianskyline by launching the 45 floors Shree-pati Arcade. With a lot of reluctance thedevelopers decided to consider speeds of

4.0mps, which was a marked up-grade from the 2.5mps elevatorsoriginally specified for the building.Shreepati Arcade’s claim to beingthe tallest building in India wasusurped by Planet Godrej (3.0mpselevators) in 6 years.

The Imperial Twin towers soondethroned Planet Godrej. At 6.0mps,the elevators at Imperial led to aquantum leap for a market that con-sidered 2.5mps as high speed. Theunder construction Palais Royale(300m+) is set to have elevators at7.0mps, while the India Towers(500m+) and World One (400m+)are supposedly to get elevators of9.0mps and 8.0mps respectively.

While most of India’s tall build-ings have been Mumbai centric,other cities have also startedlaunching their tall ambitions. API-IC Tower (450m+) Hyderabad,Gateway Tower (350m+) Gandhi-nagar, Supernova (300m+) Noida,South City Towers (150m+) Kolkataand Burj Al Hind (140m+) Calicutare some of the buildings listed byWikipedia.

The opening up of the Indianeconomy had a positive impact onthe Indian elevator industry, as withmany other industries. The lower-ing of trade barriers and acquiredappetite for tall amongst the de-velopers was encouragementenough to have the other global ma-

jors expanding to India. However the newentrants to the Indian market had to facethe might of the well-entrenched play-ers who had large resources at their dis-

posal and reach over the entire country. While the existing players were com-

fortable selling single speed (AC1) and 2speed (AC2) elevators for lower speedsand DC drive or Variable Voltage (ACVV)elevators for higher speeds, the new en-trants pushed Variable Frequency (ACVF)elevators, which had by then already be-come the standard worldwide. Selling"differentiating" technology with high-er reliability standards and committingbetter customer service norms becamethe entry strategy for the new entrants.This approach forced a paradigm shiftwithin the industry, exposing the Indianuser to technologies way before manyother advanced countries.

For instance, with a statutory licensebeing issued for the Machine Room Less(MRL) elevator installed in the Nai DishaSchool in Delhi in early 2000 in India, thecountry stole a lead over many countriesworldwide that were late in absorbing thistechnology.

India also stole a lead in adopting"Destination Control Systems" (DCS). TheHiranandani Group bought the first des-tination control elevators in April 1999.By 2003, there were over 70 destinationcontrol elevators operational around thecountry. While DCS solutions were ini-tially limited to one supplier, today al-most all the majors have supplied or inthe process of supplying their destina-tion control solutions to various projectsaround India.

With a number of companies havingeliminated "geared" machines from theirproduct offering, India has also shownleadership in adopting the more efficient"gearless" machines.

Undoubtedly through most of the first100 years the Indian elevator and esca-lator industry has proved to be theproverbial tortoise. The tortoise has out-run the hares by becoming one of thefastest growing markets in the world.With annual sales of over 40,000 unitsin 2011, forecasted to grow to over80,000 units by 2016, it is also the sec-ond largest elevator market in the world(as per a reference in e-Research Publi-cations). It is therefore not surprising thatthe country can also now boast of host-ing one of the world’s largest Elevatorand Escalator Expos.

While looking at the Indian elevatorindustry, it is essential to acknowledgethe contributions and sacrifices of themany veterans. Most of these veteransgave so much of themselves to the in-dustry that it is not unusual to hear of sto-ries of weddings and honeymoons hav-ing been postponed to attend to an ele-vator launch. In fact a number of theseveterans remained bachelors for life be-cause they just did not have the time orprobably because they were too devot-ed to their first love. It is this dedicationand commitment that ensured that theIndian elevator industry has reached thispinnacle. It is only similar dedication andcommitment that will ensure that the in-dustry continues serving the users withthe assurance that the safest means oftransportation is indeed the safest.

The author was instrumental in obtaining the first statutory approval

for a MRL elevator in India. He was alsoresponsible for the first projects with

DCS elevators in India.

Ascending to the pinnacle of growthA 100-year analysis ofthe Indian elevatorindustry and how it hasbecome one of thefastest growingmarkets across theworld

A look at the evolution of Indian standards as well as the processof writing and revising them

Setting new norms

12 epaper.dnaindia.coml www.dnaindia.com l twitter.com/dnal facebook.com/dnaindia ldnaindia.com/mobileMUMBAI FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2012