All preparations have been completed to demolish the illegal Twin Towers in Noida tomorrow, August 28th. The nearly 100-metre-tall Supertech Twin Towers will be brought down using explosives in a controlled demolition at 2.30 PM tomorrow, as per an order by the Supreme Court of India.
The job of the demolition has been awarded to West Bengal-based Edifice Engineering, and the company has partnered with South African firm Jet Demolitions to demolish the pair of buildings in a controlled blast. While the buildings will crumble to the ground within seconds, the preparations for it have been going on for weeks, led by Joseph Robert Brinkkman, the CEO and MD of the South African company.
The preparations had begun with the removal of everything not part of the main structure of the towers, including all extra concrete. All the debris generated in this process has been kept at the basement of the structures, to create cushions for the impact of the blasts. For the demolition, 9642 holes have been drilled into the columns and shear walls of the towers, each having a diameter of 35 mm.
The shear walls and the floors have been wrapped with iron mesh and geotextile, to prevent the debris from flying away. After that, the team started placing explosives in the drilled holes, a process that began on August 2 and continued till the 27th. Around 3700 kg of explosives were brought from a PESO-authorised magazine in Palwal. It is a mixture of dynamite, emulsions and plastic explosives.
Reportedly, the location of every single hole, amount and type of explosive in every hole etc have been decided by Brinkkman, who is an expert in the field. The wires leading from explosives placed in all the holes will be connected to the detonator tomorrow before the scheduled demolition, and the button will be pressed at around 2.30 PM.
Apex and Ceyane, the two towers, will come down simultaneously, and the entire demolition will be completed in 9 seconds. The demolition will create debris of 54,000 tons, which will take 3 months to clear. 4-metre-deep trenches have been dug in the blast area to contain the rubble. Water sprinklers and several other measures have been kept ready to reduce dust.
While the experts from the two companies are preparing for the blast, authorities also have all preparations to protect the people in the area from any possible impact. Around 5000 residents of two societies near the twin towers, Emerald Court and ATS Village, will be evacuated by 7 am on Sunday. Around 3000 vehicles in the nearby societies will also be removed before the blasts, and people will be allowed to return only after the site is declared safe.
The authorities have also asked people in the surrounding areas to not come outside during the blast time. They have sent messages asking residents in the area to keep indoors from 2 PM to 5 PM, and to keep the doors and windows closed. The area also has been declared a no-flying zone and using drones in the area during the blast has been banned.
An exclusion zone of up to 50 metres radius around the blast site will be created where no human or animal will be allowed, except the demolition team. Ambulances, fire tenders, police personnel, NDRF and paramilitary teams will be kept ready at the site.
Although the massive blast will create shockwaves, the Edifice Engineering officials have assured that there will be no harm to the nearby buildings. They have said that the vibration in for ground due to the explosion will be 34 mm per second, while the buildings in the Delhi-NCR region that fall under Seismic Zone 5 are designed to withstand vibrations of 300 mmps.
Edifice Engineering chief Utkarsh Mehta said that the company has got a Rs 100 crore insurance to cover any damage during the task, but they are confident that they won’t have to claim it.
The twin towers, which will become the tallest structure to be demolished in India, have 915 flats together. The ambitious project was ordered to be demolished by the Supreme Court after several violations of laws were found in it.
Supertech Limited was sanctioned permission to build a housing society in Sector 93A in Noida in 2004, and in the initial plan, the company had proposed to build 14 towers and a garden area. The company was granted approval to build 14 ten-story towers with a maximum height of 37 metres. Two years later in 2006, the company leased an additional area to build two additional towers and a shopping complex under the same terms.
But in 2012 the company again revised the plan, and increased the capacity of the project to 40 floors in both the towers, Apex and Ceyane. This was done without informing those who had already purchased houses in the project, which a violation of norms.
In 2012 itself, the Resident Welfare Association filed a petition at the Allahabad High Court against the project, saying that the construction of the twin towers was illegal. They cited several violations by the builder, including encroachment of the proposed garden area, and less than the required distance between the buildings.
Even though the project violated safety regulations like the mandatory distance between towers, it received No Objection Certificate from the Noida authority.
Agreeing with the petition, the High Court in 2014 ordered the authority to demolish the twin towers and directed the company to refund the buyers along with interest of 14%. However, Supertech moved Supreme Court and obtained a stay on the High Court order. Although the SC had stayed the demolition order, it had ordered the company to pay interest to the homebuyers. But the company didn’t obey that order, therefore several buyers approached the Supreme Court against the company.
In the meanwhile, the company resumed construction of the twin towers in 2014. In August 2021, the apex court upheld the Allahabad High Court order and ordered the demolition of the twin towers, declaring it to be illegal. The court also ordered Supertech to repay the buyers along with 12% interest. But the company declared bankruptcy in December 2021, and has not made payments to the homebuyers as per the Supreme Court order.
