ETA-Melco Elevator Company, a regional market leader which has earned the tag 'The Elevator People', has been the exclusive provider of all the elevators for the North and South high-rise towers at the Dubai Marina project.

"All the elevator finishes are exclusive. All the cabins are finished with satin-fused bronze and nickel with special bonding materials," says general manager A Basheer.
The company is installing 11 elevators in the North Tower and five elevators on the podium, the work for which started last October and is scheduled for completion at the end of this month (July). At the South Tower, meanwhile, 11 elevators are being installed with two on the podium. Work on the podium started in March this year and is scheduled for completion by the end of this year.
"We have recently been developing computerised maintenance information and control systems, which are the first of their kind in the UAE. This is already being trialled on some elevators," explains Basheer.
"As a result, elevators will be monitored on a real-time basis, breakdown information received automatically by the system, reasons for breakdown identified through the system and a technician sent to the building immediately to rectify the fault, thus reducing the response time drastically for breakdown. This will not only give a very quick service on breakdowns but also ensure safety," Basheer adds.
The major projects currently being supplied by ETA include Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Gate building (24 units), Al Reef shopping mall (14 units), BurJuman Centre expansion (124 units), the Madinat Jumeirah project (56 units), Dubai World Trade Centre expansion (55 units), Al Rostamani Tower (nine units), Conference Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi (93 units), New ADIA headquarters Abu Dhabi (18 units), Al Raha beach project, Abu Dhabi (32 units), Takreer/Atheer new headquarters complex, Abu Dhabi (22 units) Guest Complex, Muscat (27 Units), Bar Al Jissah, Muscat (28 units) and Al Abreed Residential Complex (28 units) and a commercial complex (12 units) in Kuwait.
ETA Melco has been involved in many of the most prestigious projects in the UAE. The company installed the fastest passenger elevator in the entire Middle East and Europe -  with a speed of 7 m per second - in the 321 m Burj Al Arab, (the world's tallest hotel) and in the 350 m Emirates Towers (the world's ninth tallest building), both in Dubai. The company also installed the maximum number of 121 units (35 elevators, 30 moving walks and 56 escalators) at Dubai International Airport.
The company has also executed major contracts in Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Oman, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Maldives and the CIS countries.
The largest project handled by ETA last year was at the Dubai World Trade Centre, where it installed nine elevators and 10 escalators at the Convention Centre, 13 elevators and four escalators at the office and podium and 11 elevators and three production kitchen elevators in the new hotels. The most challenging aspect of the project, says ETA, was installing the 4,000 kg capacity kitchen elevator, which comprised a 3.5 m wide by 5 m deep cabin with four speed door operators.
The company has also handled retrofit projects recently, including at the Al Ghurair Retail City. This involved changing the control systems from conventional relay type to a hi-tech microprocessor type refurbishment with new finishes to cabins and escalators for 21 elevators, 15 hydraulic elevators and six escalators.
Commenting on the market for lifts and escalators, Basheer says, "The market forecast in this region is unpredictable. However a booming market is expected to continue for another two or three years due to freehold property sales."
Explaining the trends in the global lifts and escalators industry, Basheer adds: "The latest systems are high speed elevators, high speed escalators, graphic displays, ropeless elevators and wireless elevators. While Mitsubishi too is working on ropeless elevators and wireless elevators, it has already developed high speed escalators (speed at 1,000 m/min) and high speed escalators (1.5 times faster than the conventional speed) and also introduced full multicolor graphic displays."
ETA also boasts a very low rate of elevator breakdowns, with the average number of faults reported from clients being just five per cent (five call backs for every 100 lifts) per year, which is mainly due to the very high quality levels of Mitsubishi equipment and the preventive maintenance services being offered by ETA-Melco.
The company was formed as a joint venture between Emirates Trading Agency, Dubai and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, the leading elevator company in Japan. ETA-Melco started its operations in 1975 in Dubai and expanded its operations to 14 countries including the UAE, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Oman, Kuwait, Turkey, Maldives, India, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
With a market share of 55 per cent, the company follows a no-compromise on quality and service policy, which is synonymous to both parent companies - The ETA Group and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.