How Smart Technology Is Rebuilding India's Vertical Mobility

In This Article

• IoT Connectivity Is Turning Elevators Into Continuously Reporting Assets

• AI and Building Data Platforms Are Extending the Contract Beyond Installation

• High-Speed and Destination-Control Systems Are Where Premium Projects Are Won

• Machine-Room-Less Traction Is Quietly Redrawing Building Economics

• Compact Home Elevator Technology Is Opening a Segment That Barely Existed

• Modernization Technology Is the Margin Story Hiding in Plain Sight

The India Elevator and Escalator Market was valued at USD 3.35 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 7.80 billion by 2035, growing at an 8.62% CAGR from 2026 to 2035. Connected platforms, AI-enabled diagnostics, and destination-control systems are increasingly influencing elevator specifications, shifting competition beyond core hoistway hardware toward digital services and lifecycle performance.

Developers and public agencies are increasingly considering connected monitoring and predictive maintenance during project planning, creating opportunities for manufacturers that combine equipment with digital service capabilities.

This article examines six technology shifts shaping the market, supported by verified company developments and examples from India. It also examines how technology is influencing modernization, building traffic management, residential applications, and competitive positioning.

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IoT Connectivity Is Turning Elevators into Continuously Reporting Assets

Our analysis indicates that connected elevator platforms are moving beyond pilot deployments and gaining adoption in metropolitan projects. Rather than waiting for a fault call, cloud-linked units stream operating and equipment-performance data to cloud platforms, allowing service teams to monitor equipment condition and identify issues. Otis has positioned its Gen3 elevator platform around connected monitoring capabilities, illustrating how digital services are becoming an increasingly important part of elevator offerings.

The technical mechanism is worth unpacking, because it explains the commercial consequence. A conventional elevator reveals a developing fault only when performance degrades enough for a passenger or technician to notice. A connected unit compares live operating data against expected performance curves, flagging drift in door timing or motor current long before a failure occurs. That turns an unplanned callout into a scheduled visit.

The commercial consequence is a revenue-mix change. Modernization and connected maintenance services can provide manufacturers with additional recurring revenue opportunities beyond new-equipment sales. This reflects why modernization is the fastest-growing revenue stream in the market at a 12.24% CAGR through 2035, outpacing new equipment despite the latter's 67% share of 2025 revenue.

For building owners, the calculation changes too. Downtime in a high-rise residential tower carries reputational cost with tenants that is difficult to price but easy to feel, and connected monitoring gives facility teams a defensible answer when residents ask why a unit failed. 

Key takeaway: Competition in India's vertical transportation market is shifting from equipment price toward lifecycle service capability. Manufacturers that combine connectivity, analytics, and maintenance services can strengthen recurring revenue opportunities as building owners place greater emphasis on equipment uptime and predictive maintenance.

AI and Building Data Platforms Are Extending the Contract Beyond Installation

Industry evidence indicates that the more consequential development is not connectivity itself but what sits on top of it. Elevators are becoming one input into building-wide intelligence platforms, where lift traffic data informs HVAC scheduling, security, and occupancy planning. In July 2026, Hitachi, Hitachi Lift India, and GlobalLogic launched the BuilMirai Experience Center in Noida, centered on the HMAX for Buildings platform, a hub combining building data, domain expertise, and AI to demonstrate connected building management.

The company positions India as a strategic building-solutions hub rather than solely a manufacturing base, which is the more telling signal. The investment also signals a broader focus on digital building-service architecture alongside conventional equipment.

Consider what elevator data reveals about a building. Elevator traffic data can potentially help operators identify peak demand periods, floor-level traffic patterns, and lobby bottlenecks. Historically, this level of consolidated elevator data was less accessible to facility managers, but its potential value extends well beyond the lift shaft.

For facility managers running mixed-brand portfolios, that creates an opening for vendor-agnostic predictive maintenance platforms, one of the clearer whitespace opportunities in the market through 2035. A large commercial landlord may operate Otis units in one tower, Schindler in another, and a domestic brand in a third. Centralized visibility across that mixed fleet is a genuine unmet need, and the vendor that solves it captures a relationship that outlasts any single equipment contract.

High-Speed and Destination-Control Systems Are Where Premium Projects Are Won

We observed that India's tallest residential and commercial projects are now specifying traffic-management technology alongside raw speed. Destination-control systems group passengers by floor before they board, cutting intermediate stops and improving handling capacity without adding shafts, a meaningful economic argument in land-constrained metropolitan sites. Schindler India offers destination-control technology designed to improve elevator traffic handling and passenger flow.

The economics here are unusually direct. Every additional elevator shaft consumes floor plate across every storey of a building, and in premium metropolitan locations that floor area carries a substantial opportunity cost. In some projects, improved traffic handling can reduce the number of cars or shafts required to meet a given service target, subject to project-specific traffic analysis. In such cases, the technology's value can come from improved space utilization rather than energy savings alone.

KONE's Sriperumbudur facility includes high-speed elevator testing and elevator and escalator component testing, supporting the company's high-rise technology and India-specific product development capabilities. Otis India illustrates where that capability converts to revenue: in October 2025, it secured a contract with My Home Group to supply 169 high-speed elevators across three luxury residential developments in Hyderabad, including the 234-meter My Home 99.

Such orders demonstrate that high-rise developers now treat ride performance as a saleable amenity rather than a building service. A 234-meter tower requires elevator systems designed around its height, travel requirements, and passenger-traffic demand, with key specifications typically established during the building design stage.

The rated-capacity data makes the pattern explicit:

India Elevator and Escalator Market by Rated Capacity, 2025–2035 (USD Million)

Medium capacity remains the volume core, but growth concentrates in high-capacity systems, the configuration specified for high-rise commercial towers, hospitals, and transit facilities managing peak passenger loads. The gap between medium-capacity growth at 8.20% and high-capacity growth at 10.65% is where premium vendors compete most intensely.

Transit procurement shows the same technical escalation at scale. In February 2026, Fujitec announced that it had received an order for 451 escalators and moving walks for Chennai Metro Corridors 3 and 5, covering 54 stations, including 34 underground and 20 elevated stations. Transit escalators face duty cycles and throughput requirements that building escalators do not, which is a central reason Escalator Systems is the fastest-growing product type at a 12.68% CAGR through 2035.

Machine-Room-Less Traction Is Quietly Redrawing Building Economics

Our findings suggest that machine-room-less traction systems represent the least discussed but most structurally significant technology shift in the market. By housing the drive unit within the hoistway rather than in a dedicated overhead machine room, these systems eliminate a construction requirement that has shaped building design for decades.

The practical effect compounds across a project. Removing the machine room frees rooftop area for amenities or plant equipment, reduces structural loading at the top of the building, and simplifies the approvals process where height restrictions apply. For developers working within strict floor-area-ratio limits, that is not a marginal convenience.

Energy performance reinforces the case. Gearless permanent-magnet traction machines used in these configurations typically consume less power than older geared systems and regenerate energy during descent, feeding it back into the building supply. As energy efficiency moves up the specification hierarchy for green-certified commercial stock, that regeneration capability increasingly appears as a tender requirement rather than a vendor talking point.

This reflects a broader pattern across the market: the technologies gaining share are those that change a developer's economics rather than simply improving the passenger experience. Machine-room-less traction alters buildable area and operating cost simultaneously, which is why it has migrated from premium projects into mainstream mid-rise residential specification.

Compact Home Elevator Technology Is Opening a Segment That Barely Existed

The company highlights a quieter technical shift worth naming: pneumatic and compact drive systems have removed the structural preconditions that historically kept elevators out of individual homes. Pneumatic home elevators can eliminate the need for a conventional pit and machine room while reducing the extent of structural and civil work required for installation. In July 2025, Nibav Lifts launched its Series V pneumatic home elevator in India, featuring automated doors, illuminated interiors, personalized design elements, and a screwless construction.

The retrofit dimension is what makes this commercially distinct. Some conventional home-elevator configurations require a pit and structural modifications, which can make installation more complex in existing homes. By contrast, self-supporting and pneumatic systems can reduce structural requirements and expand retrofit opportunities. A self-supporting pneumatic unit can therefore make a wider range of existing homes suitable for elevator installation.

Established manufacturers are also serving this segment. TK Elevator India offers the enta villa home elevator for multi-storey houses and villas, extending elevator applications beyond traditional high-rise buildings. Residential remains the largest end use at USD 1,266.40 million in 2025, and low-rise penetration is the most plausible route to growing it without depending solely on apartment-tower completions.

Demographics reinforce the trend. Rising life expectancy and multi-generational households in metropolitan India are making vertical accessibility a functional requirement in homes that were designed without it. This is demand driven by ageing in place rather than by luxury positioning, which typically makes it more durable across construction cycles.

Localized supply is what makes the segment defensible. In November 2025, Fujitec received its largest-ever India order, comprising 698 elevators for a Signature Global residential development in Gurgaon. The company also said it was advancing a capital investment plan to more than double its local production capacity by FY2026. Domestic manufacturing depth increasingly determines who can convert demand into delivered units on a developer's schedule.

Modernization Technology Is the Margin Story Hiding in Plain Sight

Based on research conducted by NMSC, we found that modernization is where technology adoption and revenue quality intersect most favorably for manufacturers. India's installed base includes a substantial cohort of elevators commissioned during earlier construction cycles that are now approaching end-of-life for their control systems, even where the mechanical structure remains sound.

Modernization packages rarely replace the whole installation. Instead, they swap control boards, drive systems, and door operators while retaining the guide rails and car frame, which cuts both cost and building downtime. Retrofitting connectivity during that upgrade converts a legacy unit into a monitored asset without a full replacement.

The revenue characteristics are attractive. Modernization carries higher margins than competitively tendered new-equipment sales, and it typically extends the service contract by another cycle. This is a central reason modernization grows at 12.24% CAGR through 2035, faster than the 8.62% market average and faster than new equipment.

Regulatory pressure adds further momentum. India's framework combines Bureau of Indian Standards requirements with state-specific lift and escalator legislation covering licensing, inspection, and maintenance, and applicable requirements vary by jurisdiction and installation type. As inspection requirements, safety expectations, and energy-efficiency considerations evolve, owners of ageing equipment may face modernization or corrective-action requirements where existing systems no longer meet applicable standards or operating requirements.