Is a lift ARD mandatory in India?
The short answer is yes, for anything new. The longer answer is that the code it comes from replaced the one most people still quote, and the change is wider than the ARD.
If you have specified a lift in the last decade you will have written IS 14665 on the drawing. That standard was withdrawn. Since 22 December 2025 the governing code for new lift installations in India is IS 17900, which also superseded IS 15785 and IS 14671, and it is modelled on the European norms EN 81-20 and EN 81-50.
For the automatic rescue device the change is simple and it goes one way: the ARD is now mandatory. It is worth knowing that this is a point where the Indian code is stricter than the European one it is based on — EN 81-20 puts the rescue device in Annex G as a recommendation, and IS 17900 makes it a requirement. Nobody should be surprised by that. European grids do not behave like ours.
What the code actually asks the device to do
The functionality is defined in the standard rather than left to the supplier, which is the more important half of the change. Loosely: on loss of the normal supply the lift must, under battery power, move the car to a landing and open the doors. It is a rescue function, not a continuity function — the device gets people out, it does not keep the lift in service.
Two other requirements arrived in the same document and are worth naming here because they show up on the same quotation. UCMP, unintended car movement protection, means the car must not move with the doors open — that is a response to a real accident pattern involving worn brakes. And ACOP, ascending car overspeed protection, covers the runaway-up case that a governor and safety gear alone do not.
Confirm the position for your building
National standard and state law are two different instruments. IS 17900 is the BIS code; enforcement runs through the state Lift Acts and the Electrical Inspectorate, and adoption has not been uniform. Nothing here is a compliance opinion for your site — confirm with your licensed lift contractor and the state inspectorate before you order.
Does it apply to the lift already running in your building?
Not retrospectively. A lift installed and certified under IS 14665 was compliant when it was installed and does not become illegal on 22 December 2025. The change applies to new installations, to safety components, and to major modernisations.
That last category is the one people miss. If you are modernising an ageing lift — new controller, new drive, new machine — you are very likely inside the scope of the new code rather than outside it, and the specification you inherited from the original installation is not the specification you will be inspected against. IS 17900 has a part dealing specifically with modernising aged lifts. Ask the question before the order goes in, not when the inspector arrives.
What non-compliance actually costs
The penalty most people think of is a fine, and it is the least of it. The two that hurt are the occupancy certificate and the insurance. A rejected OC stops handover on a building that is otherwise finished, and an invalidated policy is discovered at the worst possible moment. Both are downstream of a lift that cannot be certified, which is downstream of a component that was specified to a withdrawn code.
What to ask for, in order
- A written declaration that the lift is built and certified to IS 17900. Get it on paper, not in an email thread.
- Type-test certificates for the safety components. Part 2 of the standard covers component type examination, and this is the part where the supply chain is still catching up — a supplier who cannot produce them is telling you something.
- The ARD specification: output configuration, the machine rating it is matched to, battery type and autonomy, and how it behaves at a landing versus between landings.
- Confirmation from the state Electrical Inspectorate of what your state currently enforces, because that is what your occupancy certificate depends on.
- An AMC that actually tests the ARD on a schedule rather than listing it. A rescue device is only ever used on the day it is needed.
The part nobody tests until it matters
A rescue device sits on float for months and is then asked to move a loaded car on battery. That is a discharge duty, and the only way to know a battery bank will do it is to make it do it. A float voltage reading tells you the charger is working; it tells you almost nothing about capacity. If your AMC does not include a discharge test on the ARD bank at least annually, the certificate on the wall and the behaviour of the lift on the day of the outage are two separate things.
The failure mode is undramatic and common: the ARD energises, drives for a few seconds, the bank sags, and the car stops again — this time with the rescue device also flat. Passengers are then waiting for a manual release from a technician who has to drive to site.
Questions we get asked
Anything not covered here, call us — most of it is faster to answer on the phone.
01Is an ARD mandatory for all lifts in India now?
It is mandatory under IS 17900 for new installations, safety components and major modernisations from 22 December 2025. It is not retrospective — a lift installed under IS 14665 remains certified to the code it was built to. Enforcement runs through the state Lift Acts, so confirm the position in your state with your lift contractor and the Electrical Inspectorate.
02What replaced IS 14665?
IS 17900, which became mandatory for new installations on 22 December 2025 and also superseded IS 15785 and IS 14671. It is modelled on EN 81-20 and EN 81-50. If a brochure, drawing or supplier quotation still names IS 14665 for a new lift, it is out of date.
03Is the Indian ARD requirement stricter than the European one?
On this point yes. EN 81-20 places the rescue device in Annex G as a recommendation; IS 17900 makes it a requirement. The reasoning is straightforward — supply interruptions are ordinary here in a way they are not in most of Europe, particularly outside the metros.
04Does a modernisation of an old lift have to meet IS 17900?
A major modernisation is inside scope, and the standard has a part dealing with aged-lift modernisation specifically. Where the line falls between a repair and a major modernisation is a judgement your lift contractor and the inspectorate make, so settle it before the order rather than after.
05What is UCMP, and is it related to the ARD?
Unintended car movement protection stops the car moving with the doors open, typically after brake wear. It is a separate requirement that arrived in the same standard, so it appears on the same quotations, but it is not the ARD and one does not substitute for the other.
06What happens if the lift is not certified to IS 17900?
The direct penalty is the smallest part. The consequences that matter are a rejected occupancy certificate, which stops handover on a finished building, and invalidated insurance, which is discovered only when a claim is made.
07How long does an ARD need to run for?
It is a rescue duty, not a service duty — the device needs to move the car to a landing and open the doors, not to keep the lift running. The figure to check is not hours of autonomy but whether the bank can deliver the rescue current at the end of its life as well as at the start, which is a discharge test question.
08Can we fit an ARD to a lift that does not have one?
Usually, and it is the common retrofit. The constraint is the controller interface rather than the rating, because drives differ in how they signal a supply failure and how they expect the rescue sequence to start. The machine room gets surveyed first.