In search of the country's first elevator

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.

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.