One HDB resident in Towner Road has installed a lift inside his double-storey executive maisonette.

The resident, who declined to be named, put it up last year for his wheelchair-bound mother. They live on the sixth floor.

The HDB said this was the first such lift that it had approved in public housing, although developers had been selling private properties with such lifts.

Lift-Mech Engineering said it took about a year to obtain approval for the lift.

Among the considerations raised by the HDB were the energy usage and impact on the structure of the building and neighbouring units, said marketing manager Sherlyn Lim.

She noted that the lift's electricity consumption would be the same on average as that for a washing machine.

'It actually uses a three-pin plug,' she added of the lift, which can take five people.

The machinery and electrical system are housed inside the lift shaft, with no need for an external machine room.

The lift cost $60,000, excluding some structural works, she added.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.