Tourism dept denied permission to operate inclined lifts for tourists in Signature Bridge

New Delhi: Delhiites will have to wait longer to get a bird's eye view of the city from 154-metre-height of the Signature Bridge as the tourism department could not get permission from concerned authorities to operate inclined lifts to ferry tourists to a viewing gallery set up atop the pylon, officials said.

Officials of the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) said there are four lifts installed in legs of the pylon of the bridge. Two lifts are inclined at an angle of 60 degrees and two at the 80 degrees.

They said statutory permission is required from the electrical branch of the labour department of the Delhi government to start operations and take tourists to a glass facade (viewing gallery) that has been built atop the bow-shaped steel pylon — twice the height of Qutub Minar — of the country's first asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge.

The height of Qutub Minar is about 73 metres.

"The electrical wing of the labour department did not give us the permission to use these inclined lifts to ferry passengers to the viewing gallery. The permission was denied because of inclined nature of these lifts," a senior DTTDC official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

The official, however, said lifts can be used for maintenance purposes of the Signature Bridge.

Explaining the reason behind not getting the approval, another DTTDC official said that lifts installed in the pylon of the Signature Bridge are slant while only vertical lifts are given permission to be operated in Delhi.

"In Delhi, lifts are given permission in accordance with the Bombay Lifts Act 1939. This Act was adopted by Delhi in 1942. At that time, the concept of elevators was not very common and mostly vertical lifts were in use. So, the Act gives permission only for the operation of vertical lifts to ferry passengers.