Johnson Lifts, a leading manufacturer of lifts and escalators in India, has signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) to provide enhanced indigenisation for the metro rail systems in India. Johnson Lifts has been awarded the first contract for the lease and maintenance of lifts and escalators for the three priority corridors in the Phase-IV expansion of the Delhi Metro Railways Corporation (DMRC) This financial model is the first of its kind in this sector adopted in India for the funding of a public infrastructure project based on PPP. Johnson Lifts 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. Additionally, these lifts are indigenised up to a level of 65 per cent and shall be manufactured in the Oragadam Factory of Johnson Lifts in Chennai. Till now, the escalators for heavy duty applications would be imported. This partnership will give a further boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Under this model, DMRC will release monthly payments towards lease and maintenance charges once these lifts and escalators become operational and the release of maintenance payments will be linked to the key performance parameters defined in the contracts. The entire upkeep and maintenance will be handled by Johnson Lifts during these 15 years. The systems will be installed with the provision of 24 x 7 online monitoring. This lease model will also enhance the quality, efficiency and capacity of lifts and escalators to be commissioned under Phase-IV. For the first time in India, the metro systems will have lifts with a huge carrying capacity of around 20 commuters at a time. In earlier phases, DMRC had lifts with a carrying capacity of only 8-13 passengers. CCTV cameras will also be installed inside the lifts for the first time under Phase-IV for enhanced safety. The contract agreements for the procurement of state-of-the-art, heavy duty, indigenised lifts and escalators for the three priority corridors under Phase-IV were exchanged between John K John, Chairman and Managing Director, Johnson Lifts and Om Hari Pande, Director (Electrical), DMRC in the presence of DMRC’s Managing Director, Dr Mangu Singh and other senior officials. 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. These lifts and escalators will be manufactured in Johnson Lifts’ manufacturing units in Chennai, Tamil Nadu at Sengandu and Oragadam respectively. Johnsons Lifts established in 1963 has been the pioneer in this field for 59 years with over 9,000 employees and an annual turnover of 20+ billion (2,000+ crore). Johnson Lifts is the only Indian manufacturer to own four manufacturing units in India for lifts and escalators and has been associated in 16 major metro rail works namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, etc. in providing 1,800+ lifts and 2,400+ escalators for the metro stations.