Only 5% of all elevators from old apartment blocks from Chișinău are safe for usage. The rest have their elevator life expectancy expired, some being even over 40 years old and often breaking down, due to being worn out. Interim Mayor of the Capital has requested explanations from representatives of "Liftservice" upon this subject. The enterprise's director claims that the money given each year by the City Hall are not enough to replace the old elevators.

Elevators that are over 25 years old must be taken out of usage. Still, 26% of elevators from Chisinau are older than 25. Same number being of those over 30 years old, while 36% of elevators were installed back in 1981.

Those responsible for the functioning of elevators claim that this year, multiple measures were taken to ensure that they are usable.

"We have basically repaired all elevators from the Capital and spend on it close to 19 million lei" director of "Liftservice" enterprise, Ion Stanciu declared.

"You wish to say that elevators that are 43-year-old are safe for people to use?" interim Mayor of the Capital, Silvia Radu questioned.

"The company would never allow elevators to be used if they posed any danger for citizens" Ion Stanciu answered.

The interim Mayor requested all expenses for changing the elevators to be calculated. The money might be provided from the budget of other directorates.

"We will see in Mr. Gontea's budget where are the money we could transfer you as we did for transport. We found spare 70, 80, 90 million and used them for roads. Same way we will proceed in your directorate to concentrate on the city's priorities" Silvia Radu announced.

In the budget of ”Liftservice” enterprise for next year, are foreseen 9.5 million lei for the purchase of eight new elevators. A new elevator for a nine floor apartment block costs on average 700 thousand lei. ”Liftservice” attends to almost 2 400 elevators from the Capital.