Parliament staff perturbed over plan to install new lifts

By Dayaseeli Liyanage   
Members of the Parliamentary staff have expressed reservations over the authorities planning to install new lifts in parliament spending Rs. 100 Million despite the Government of Japan having already provided spare parts to repair the existing lifts.   

Currently a sum of Rs. 5 million is being paid annually to a Private firm for the maintenance of the lifts in Parliament.   

It was the Ceylon Electricity Board that had been carrying out maintenance of the lifts in parliament up to 2008. There are 12 lifts being operated in parliament and they came into the limelight after the recent incident where one of them was stuck with 12 Parliamentarians in it.   

In spite of the Company that maintains the lifts having recommended that new lifts should be purchased, relevant parliament staff is of the view that the Parliament is in possession of the spare parts that are needed for the proper maintenance of the lifts in the premises.   

They are also of the opinion that a huge amount of money has to be spent for  engineering consultations before purchasing the 
new lifts.