Lifts at Capital Tower hit by flooding

SINGAPORE - An opened water valve led to flooding and disrupted lift services at Capital Tower on Tuesday.

The water valve on the 26th floor was shut down as soon as it was identified, said a spokesman for CapitaCommercial Trust (CCT) management, which owns the Tanjong Pagar office building.

"We are conducting further investigations into the opened water valve," the spokesman added, in an e-mail to The Straits Times.

"Part of the 25th floor was affected and we are doing all we can to assist the affected tenant in resuming its operations."

JP Morgan occupies the 25th floor, while General Mills is a tenant on the 26th.

The flooding affected lifts servicing levels 9 to 20 and 22 to 36.

Tenants told The Straits Times there were long queues in the foyer of the 52-storey building on Tuesday as employees arrived at work.

The CCT spokesman said the building's management opened up alternative routes, allowing tenants to use carpark lifts, the service and fire lifts, and stairways to get to their offices faster.

"Restoration of the lift services was also immediately undertaken and a few lifts were progressively made operational through the day," the spokesman added. "As the safety of our tenants is of utmost importance to us, all restored lifts have to undergo rigorous tests before they are allowed to operate again."

By 6.30pm on Tuesday, seven lifts had been restored and were in operation.

Repair work continued last night to restore all the lifts to normal operations as soon as possible, the spokesman said.

Capital Tower, completed in 2000, is the headquarters of developer CapitaLand. Its top tenants are GIC, JP Morgan Chase Bank and Mizuho Corporate Bank.

The building's other tenants include Starbucks and Fitness First.

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