SINGAPORE - Office workers at Golden Mile Tower received some respite on Wednesday (Jan 17) when one of the building's four lifts started working in the afternoon.

Workers at the 22-storey building had had to take the stairs to work after the last working lift broke down last Thursday.

Two of the building's lifts had been closed for upgrading for almost two months while a third stopped working two weeks back, the workers at the building told The Straits Times.

Mr Jerome Audais, managing director of lift contractor Kone Singapore, said in a statement that one of the lifts began operating on Wednesday while another one will be working by the end of next week.

He added that Kone will start work on the remaining lifts once the second lift is up and running, but did not give a date.

He said when Kone took over the lift maintenance from the original equipment manufacturer last July, it wanted to upgrade just one lift to minimise the inconvenience to users.

But the company decided later to upgrade two lifts at the same time because the other lifts were showing signs of breaking down and existing spare parts were too old to be used, he added. The building was completed in 1974.

While these first two lifts were being upgraded, the other two broke down recently.

"It is unfortunate that there was an unexpected breakdown that was not possible to be rectified and we are treating this as a high priority," he said, referring to the Jan 11 breakdown. "We will do our best to make sure such incidents do not occur again."

Ms Nikka Choy, 26, an accounts assistant who works on the 22nd floor, said the lift began working at about 3pm today.

"My colleagues and I are all very happy. Tomorrow morning we will not need to take the stairs anymore," she said.