ST : No floor indicators: Bid 'to save costs'

Feb 8, 2010

No floor indicators: Bid 'to save costs'

THE Housing Board's initial plan to leave out floor-indicator panels for its Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) was neither 'deliberate' nor 'witting'.

Rather, it was a cost-saving measure by the HDB which ended up taking away 'one of the features that people wanted', said Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua.

She made the remarks on the sidelines of a block party in Serangoon Avenue 2 yesterday where she also announced that seven blocks in the precinct were selected for the LUP.

Said Mrs Lim, who is also Second Minister for Finance and Transport:

'I think lift upgrading is a massive countrywide programme, so it is a question of you taking feedback and you improve it as you go along... So I think it's learning as we go along.'

The Straits Times reported last week that the HDB had reversed its decision to leave out electronic floor-indicator display panels in the LUP.

The lift landings were fitted only with displays that showed arrows pointing upwards or downwards that would light up just before a lift arrived.

Residents in Bedok North had earlier complained that they were not happy with their upgraded lifts because of the missing floor indicators. Without floor indicators, they would not know if the lift had broken down, they said.

With the reversal, about 200 blocks islandwide which had undergone upgrading will be retrofitted.

CAROLYN QUEK