Johnson Lifts wins DMRC’s escalators contract

The Delhi Metro has awarded the contract for the lease and maintenance of Lifts and Escalators for the three priority corridors under its ongoing Phase-IV to expansion to Johnson Lifts. This is also a first of its kind financial model in the sector adopted in India for funding of public infrastructure projects based on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. In the PPP, Johnson Lifts Chennai will initially bear the entire cost for design, manufacturing, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the Lifts and Escalators, and will maintain them for a period of 15 years. These lifts are fully indigenized and for the first time escalators will be indigenized up to a level of 65%. Till now, the escalators for heavy-duty applications were being fully imported, this will give a further boost to the Make in India initiatives.

This leasing model will also enhance the quality, efficiency and capacity of lifts and escalators to be commissioned under Ph-IV. Not just this, for the first time in India, the Metro systems will have lifts with a huge carrying capacity of around 20 commuters at a time as in earlier phases DMRC had lifts with a carrying capacity of only 8 to 13 passengers. The Phase-IV priority corridors are – Janakpuri West – RK Ashram Marg, Majlis Park – Maujpur and Tughalakabad – Aerocity for which DMRC has awarded these contracts to procure around 179 lifts and 323 escalators to be commissioned across these corridors comprising a total length of 65 KM and 45 stations.