Millions Spent on Elevators, Yet Citizens Continue to Risk Their Lives

According to the newspaper 'Jhoghovurd', it has long been known that about 80% of the elevators operating in Armenia are in deplorable condition. For example, most of the 5330 elevators currently used in apartment buildings in Yerevan and regional cities have exceeded their service life, surpassing 25 years, and in some cases reaching even 50 years.

ArmLur.am has learned that the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia has developed a new project aimed at establishing a concept for ensuring technical safety and state regulation in the elevator industry. The project was published yesterday on the unified website for legal acts.

It was also learned that the maintenance and service costs of elevators are not regulated. It turns out that various homeowners' associations charge residents different fees for the maintenance of communal property without any calculations, which do not include the electricity costs incurred during the operation of the elevator, for which residents pay separately.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, between 2006 and 2019, there were 21 incidents involving elevators in apartment buildings, resulting in 9 fatalities and 20 injuries.

ArmLur.am was informed that from 2014 to 2019, an average of 127 million 100 thousand 900 drams was allocated annually from the city budget for the elevator renovation program to ensure the safety of 4219 elevators that had exceeded their designated service life.

For instance, in 2019, 290 million 391 thousand drams was allocated from the budget for the elevator renovation program. Over the period from 2014 to 2019, a total of 925 million 895 thousand 500 drams was spent from the Yerevan city budget for the elevator renovation program.

This means that millions are being allocated to improve the elevator industry, yet citizens continue to risk their lives by using old, dilapidated elevators. Moreover, it has been revealed that the approximate market prices for elevators from the manufacturer currently range between 4 to 10 million drams. In other words, replacing the 5330 elevators that have exceeded their service life would require approximately 21 to 53 billion drams. What guarantee is there that after allocating 21-53 billion, the elevator industry in Armenia will be renewed? In any case, this doesn’t seem evident in Yerevan.

For more details, refer to today’s issue of the newspaper.