Supertech’s illegal Twin Towers in Sector 93A, Noida will be razed to the ground on Sunday afternoon. The demolition of twin towers is scheduled to take place using explosives at 2.30 pm. A seven-member team of Jet Demolitions along with Edifice Engineering will bring down the twin towers with a controlled blast. This will be the tallest towers to be demolished in the country so far.
Joe Brinkmann, CEO and Managing Director of Jet Demolitions, a South African-based firm which will carry out the demolition of Supertech’s illegal Twin Towers along with Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering and others, said bringing down the twin towers is one of the most difficult tasks as the building is strong and is built in a seismic zone.
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The twin buildings, which comprise 915 flats and are located just nine metres from Emerald Court’s Aster-2 apartment block, have been fully rigged with explosives. The authorities have decided to deploy over 400 police personnel to the spot, the Uttar Pradesh Police informed.
“Over 400 civil police personnel will be present at the spot. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been requested. Eight ambulances and four fire tenders will also be present at the spot,” said Rajesh S, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Central), Noida, while addressing a press conference here on Friday. “For contingency, beds are reserved in three hospitals and a green corridor will also be made if required,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, the Indian blaster who will press the button to demolish the Twin Tower, Chetan Dutta explained the details of the process that will raze the towers. He said: “It’s a simple process; we generate current from the dynamo and then press the button which will ignite the detonators in all shock tubes within 9 seconds.”
“We’ll be almost 50-70 m away from the building. There will be no danger and we are very much sure that the building will collapse in a proper way… the blasting area is covered with four layers of iron mesh and two layers of blanket. So no rubble will fly past but dust may,” he added.
Supertech’s illegal twin towers, which are taller than the Qutub Minar, will become India’s highest structures ever to be demolished in nine seconds on Sunday. Impact cushions have been designed to reduce vibration. The demolition of the Apex (32 storeys) and Ceyane (29 storeys) would leave behind approximately 35,000 cubic metres of debris that would take at least three months to be cleared.
The go-ahead for demolishing the twin towers with explosives was given by the Supreme Court. The exercise was earlier supposed to start on August 21 but the court accepted the Noida Authority’s request and extended its date of demolition to August 28.
The twin towers are being razed over grave violations of building norms. The top court had said that it was a result of ‘nefarious complicity’ between the Noida Authority and Supertech and ordered that the company shall carry out the demolition at its own expense under the supervision of the Noida Authority and an expert body like the Central Building Research Institute.
The order had come on a batch of petitions filed by homebuyers for and against the April 11, 2014 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which had ordered razing of the two buildings within four months and the refund of money to apartment buyers. The Supreme Court has said that the date of demolition may be confirmed as August 28, with a “bandwidth of seven days” between August 29 and September 4, to take into account any marginal delay on account of technical reasons or weather conditions.
