CRI听力:Safety of Special Equipment Law Takes Effect This Year

A local safety watchdog ordered 55 elevators out-of-service last year in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province. Meanwhile, local quality supervision department in Shanghai is reporting 616 old elevators in downtown residential buildings have failed to pass their safety evaluation tests.

However, maintenance or repairing funds for the elevators are often not available. Who will be responsible for supplying the funds is a question.

Liu Zhaobin, an official at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, says the safety of special equipment law has clarified the issue.

"The law includes specific regulations for the property managements to make responsibility to monitor special equipment which is common property. For example, if property rights are shared, the owners of those rights should manage the property. But if the property is entrusted to property managers, the property management team should take responsibility for repairs, maintenance and renovation."

Zhi Shuping, director at the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine says compared to the old regulation, the new law is more specific.

"For example, the tracing regulation demands complete maintenance records over the life cycle of the equipment. The recall regulation targets defective equipment. The scrapping regulation targets equipment that poses serious safety risks."

Liu Junhai, a professor at the law school at RenMin University of China, says this is the first law to establish a recall regulation in the special equipment sector.

"As before, we often fix the problem when it occurs. But now, we can take precautions to prevent the problem from occurring in the first place."

In the meantime, the law also mandates that equipment in public areas, such as schools, kindergartens, and transport stations, should be a priority to be supervised and checked. And producers, sellers and users of special equipment must obtain state-issued licenses and certifications. It also clarifies compulsory safety standards for imported special equipment.

Along with elevators, special equipment includes boilers, cranes and other facilities which operates under high pressure, temperature or speed with a potential threat to public safety.

For CRI, this is Xie Zhao.