In search of the country's first elevator | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
June 10, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2025
In search of the country's first elevator

Supplement

Kamrun Naher
14 July, 2024, 11:15 am
Last modified: 14 July, 2024, 11:18 am

Related News

  • The evolution of elevators
  • Regulatory body needed to oversee elevator safety amid rising installations
  • Absence of monitoring authority holding back 'Made in Bangladesh' elevator goal
  • Property Lifts: Elevating the standards of locally manufactured elevators
  • More companies needed to meet upcoming lift demand

In search of the country's first elevator

TBS tries to trace the history of elevators in the country by piecing together fragments of memories from researchers, experts and lift suppliers in Bangladesh

Kamrun Naher
14 July, 2024, 11:15 am
Last modified: 14 July, 2024, 11:18 am
On left Adamjee Court building in Motijheel, on right DIT Bhaban. Photo: Collected
On left Adamjee Court building in Motijheel, on right DIT Bhaban. Photo: Collected

Some said it was in a bank building in Sadarghat, while others mentioned names like the Adamjee Court building in Motijheel, or the insurance office building on Bangabandhu Avenue, DIT Bhaban (the present Rajuk building), Shahbagh Hotel, and so on. 

Although there is no exact information, the idea is that it was during the Pakistan regime, somewhere around the early 1950s, when  the first elevator of Bangladesh was installed in one of the aforementioned buildings. 

By the 1960s, elevators could be seen in buildings like the Intercontinental Hotel, Amin Court, the Motijheel office of Ispahani, Hotel Purbani, and Jeeban Bima Bhaban — all of them having lifts from Otis Worldwide. But we could not be certain whether these were the first ones in Dhaka.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Mohammad Azim Buksh and Waqar A Khan, prominent for their research on Old Dhaka, have memories of iron elevators with collapsible gates, while Abdul Alim, building manager of the 28 Bangabandhu Avenue, talks about wooden elevators by a Swiss brand. 

Elevator brands like Otis, Gold Star, Hausen, and Thyssen, which are currently merged with other companies, were mentioned by market experts. 

As we spoke with researchers and experts on Dhaka and pioneers of the elevator business in Bangladesh, we realised there are specks of memories here and there regarding the first elevators of this city, but no documentation or photographs. So, here we are, trying to build a story of old elevators from the ashes of memories.  

Elevators with collapsible gates in the 1950s

Mohammad Azim Buksh, son of former Panchayat Sardar of Old Dhaka Maula Bakhsh, was a student of St Gregory's High School and College, when he first saw a lift in 1953/54.

"I grew up in Farashganj. From school, we often went to see that lift. It was very sturdy and we were amazed to see how it used to go up and down effortlessly. The memory of the lift is still vivid," Buksh said. 

It was almost like a cage, with double collapsible gates and an iron structure. This extremely heavy elevator was inside the State Bank of India building on Sadarghat crossroad. 

"It is probably the present building of Pubali Bank, earlier it was a three-storied bank building. The inside wall had four round buttons, a heavy iron fan and a yellow light was installed inside the elevator box," Buksh further said. 

Waqar A Khan, another prominent researcher on Dhaka's history, doubts the existence of an elevator in the bank building in Sadarghat. "As far as I remember, it was a three-storey building and I don't think they would need an elevator there." 

He believes, Hotel Shahbagh, Adamjee Court Building or the DIT building (the Rajuk building) — one of these three might have had the first elevator in Dhaka.

Khan was a young boy in 1959, when he first took a ride on a collapsible-gated elevator in the Adamjee Court Building in Motijheel. According to him, after 7-8 years of independence, the elevator was replaced.

"Hotel Shahbagh was inaugurated in around 1954, it did not initially have an elevator. However, around 1955 or 1956, its first elevator was installed. It also had iron collapsible gates," he mentioned. 

"We were living in Khulna back then when one of our family friends, who was also one of the partners of the hotel, invited us to visit it once more as there was a new elevator installed", he added.  

The oldest lift that still works today

The Sonali Bank building on 28 Bangabandhu Avenue probably has the oldest elevator today. It is made of wood boards with a mirror on one of the walls and a round brass plate with the inscription 'Green and White Limited, 1951'. 

Md Abdul Alim, the building's manager, said, "The building was established in around 1956/57 and that is when the lift was installed. And it runs smoothly even today." 

At that time, three of the same elevators were installed in three different buildings in Motijheel, "The one in Kareem Chamber still exists, although I don't know what happened to the other one," Alim shared with us. 

The expansion of 'vertical transportation industry' in 1980s

According to Country lift BD, back in the days, the market leader in Bangladesh was Schindler, whose lifts were imported by Aziz & Co. Next in line was Hausan by Creative Engineers, and Labani Corporation brought Otis, Fiam, Turner Graham and Sabiam. 

The Shilpa Bank building was the first 22-storey building in Dhaka in 1983 and Japanese company Nippon provided an elevator for it. But the brand did not fare well in the market. 

Maan Bangladesh, a Bangladeshi elevator dealer, started their business in 1987 and began operations in 1990. 

"There were a couple of brands already in the market. Some of the very first lifts we brought were Gold Star, Hausen, Thyssen, Mitsubishi and Schindler. Later, we also brought Otis, Sigma and other such brands. As globalisation started and companies were being merged, the brand names also changed," said Moinul Moin, general manager of Maan Bangladesh. 

The very first lift that was installed by Maan Bangladesh was in 1990, in the Khamarbari building at Monipuri para. The brand was Gold Star, a Korean brand. 

According to Moin, the first elevator of our parliament building was by the brand Thyssen, which was later replaced by Maan. 

"It was during the reign of General Ershad when lifts were widely used in Dhaka as many multi-storied buildings were made in Dhanmondi, Gulshan and Banani. Eventually, the demand for elevators and lifts also increased," he added. 

"If you want to go further back, before the 1970s, elevators were not imported by companies. Rather, when aristocratic individuals, industrialists, or businessmen went abroad, they brought back those elevators to be installed in their buildings. There were no promotional or dealer companies in the country back then," he said.  

From the beginning of the 1990s, South Korean products started coming to Bangladesh and began to  dominate the market. 

Country lift BD, a dealer in Bangladesh, said in one of their social media posts that the market continued to expand from the early 1990s. As the housing industry expanded, the demand for smaller elevators as well as ones with aesthetic designs and riding comfort increased. 

On one hand, there was a need for advanced technology, shortage of manpower, rising prices and on the other, there was the pressure of providing attractive lifts to the customers at a low price, which the European brands failed to provide. And this opportunity was seized by South Korean brands, and later by China.
 

Uplift your life

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus leaves for a four-day visit to the United Kingdom from the Dhaka airport on 9 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    CA Yunus leaves for UK; discussion expected on renewable energy investment, laundered money
  • Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters
    Trump defends sending National Guard to LA as California governor to sue administration
  • California Governor Gavin Newsom. File Photo: REUTERS/Fred Greaves
    California Governor Newsom to sue Trump over National Guard deployment amid LA protests

MOST VIEWED

  • On left, Abdullah Hil Rakib, former senior vice president (SVP) of BGMEA and additional managing director of Team Group; on right, Captain Md Saifuzzaman (Guddu), a Boeing 787 Dreamliner pilot for Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Photos: Collected
    Ex-BGMEA SVP Abdullah Hil Rakib, Biman 787 pilot Saifuzzaman drown in boating accident in Canada
  • A photo showing the former president on his return to Dhaka today (9 June). 
Source: Collected
    Former president Abdul Hamid returns to Bangladesh from Thailand
  • File Photo: British MP Tulip Siddiq attends a news conference with Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in London, Britain October 11, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo
    Tulip requests CA Yunus for a meeting over corruption allegations: Guardian
  • Representational image. Photo: Reuters
    Bangladesh reports 3 more Covid-19 cases
  • Muhammad Yunus (L) and Narendra Modi. Photo: Collected
    Modi sends Eid-ul-Adha greetings, Yunus calls for continued bilateral cooperation
  • Photo: Reuters
    Trump says Musk relationship over, warns of 'serious consequences' if he funds Democrats

Related News

  • The evolution of elevators
  • Regulatory body needed to oversee elevator safety amid rising installations
  • Absence of monitoring authority holding back 'Made in Bangladesh' elevator goal
  • Property Lifts: Elevating the standards of locally manufactured elevators
  • More companies needed to meet upcoming lift demand

Features

File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

15h | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

2d | Bangladesh
Illustration: TBS

Unbearable weight of the white coat: The mental health crisis in our medical colleges

5d | Panorama
(From left) Sadia Haque, Sylvana Quader Sinha and Tasfia Tasbin. Sketch: TBS

Meet the women driving Bangladesh’s startup revolution

5d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

US and China to meet in London for trade talks

US and China to meet in London for trade talks

4h | TBS World
The forbidden point on Cox's Bazar beach is like a death trap

The forbidden point on Cox's Bazar beach is like a death trap

6h | TBS Today
Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg

Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg

8h | TBS World
Which way will the anti-immigration campaign in Los Angeles turn?

Which way will the anti-immigration campaign in Los Angeles turn?

9h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net