In an air of both nervousness and excitement, the historic demolition of the ‘illegal’ Supertech twin towers in Noida was undertaken on Sunday. The demolition job for the massive 100-metre tall structures was bestowed on Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering. The demolition experts termed the task as no less than an engineering marvel.
Edifice is not alone. It partnered with a South African firm Jet Demolitions. The two companies brought in their resources to complete the high-risk job which turned the 100-metre-tall towers into rubble within a matter of seconds.
Edifice CEO Utkarsh Mehta had compared the task with an engineering marvel because the towers had to implode safely and without damaging nearby structures that were barely 9 metres away.
The team comprising the two companies whose total experience is more than 60 years combined had been “150 percent confident” of undertaking a safe demolition. The nearby buildings may receive a few “cosmetic cracks”, but there would be no structural damage, assured Mehta.
The demolition experts also have a Rs 100 crore insurance for any damage.
“We have got a Rs 100 crore insurance for damage during the event but are confident we won't have to claim it,” Mehta told PTI in an interview.
This is not the first time the two firms are partnering for a high rise demolition. The 4 buildings of the Maradu complexes of Kochi in 2020 were demolished by them.
Jet Demolitions safely demolished a 108-metre high Bank of Lisbon building in home country South Africa in 2019 with the adjacent building just 8 metres away.
The same technique of ‘implosion’ was used for the twin towers in Noida to bring them down like a house of cards in 15 minutes.
“Implosion technique is used to make a building fall within itself while in explosion the debris goes outside. Implosion works on the principle of gravity,” Mehta said. He explains more about the technique.
“If you remove the legs of structure in such a fashion that the centre of gravity shifts even by millimetres, with time the structure has to come down. Gravity never sleeps. It works all day and all night. That's the whole idea of implosion,” Mehta said.
The demolition was a precision task which had several equipment deployed like high and slow speed cameras at multiple locations in order to analyse the job later. Exactly 9,640 holes had been drilled at a thickness of 2.634mm, till the last decimal digit.
“There is no book of reference for this method of demolition. There is no specific way of doing it or any word written anywhere in the world on how to do it. It's only on the acumen of individuals and their experiences of doing it,” Mehta adds.
More than money, he said, the job is about the reputation of the companies.
“Jet Demolitions is a 40-45 year old company, we (Edifice) are a 20-year-old company. So we both would never risk our positions, we in our Indian market and, they, in the global market,” he said.
He reassured the residents.
“I can assure the residents that none of them has to be worried. Yes, dust is the only issue which we need to cater to. Apart from that there would be no structural damages,” he said.
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(With inputs from PTI)
