Nine years after a residents association went to court over the illegally built Supertech twin towers, a series of controlled explosions reduced the 100-metre tall structures to a huge pile of rubble -- watched by thousands from surrounding rooftops and lakhs on live television.
Apex (32 storeys) and Ceyane (29 storeys) were gone in 12 seconds on Sunday, in the carefully choreographed and meticulously executed demolition, the biggest such exercise in the country so far.
Officials said the demolition conducted by the ‘waterfall implosion’ technique left an estimated 35,000 cubic metres or 55,000 tonnes to 80,000 tonnes of debris, including concrete rubble, steel and iron bars. Which officials said would be cleared within three months.
According to Noida Authority General Manager (Planning) Ishtiaq Ahmed, 21,000 cubic metres of the debris would be moved out and dumped at an isolated land measuring five to six hectares in city’s work circle seven limits.
The remaining would get accommodated in the basement areas of the twin towers where a pit has been made. The debris will take about three months to clear.
Noida Authority’s General Manager (Planning) Ishtiaq Ahmed told PTI, “The post demolition debris would be managed scientifically as per rules and guidelines. A final decision on it would come from the regional pollution control board which is examining a report from Edifice Engineering on debris management.”
At least 4,000 tonnes of iron and steel is expected to emerge from the debris, which Edifice will use to partly recover the demolition cost. Part of the waste is likely to be transported to Noida Authority’s construction and demolition waste management plant in Sector 80, which has a capacity of 300 tonnes per day.
Just after 2.30 pm, the floors of the twin towers collapsed onto each other in a stack that then sat amid other complexes in sector 93A in Noida, an Uttar Pradesh city that adjoins New Delhi. As the doomed buildings went down, a cloud of dust rose obscuring the doomed towers' very final moments.
The dust settled in a few minutes. Officials reported cracked windows and a broken boundary wall, but apparently no significant structural damage to the high-rises next to the demolished towers.
A team from Edifice Engineering and South Africa's Jet Demolitions - the two companies that carried out the challenging task - the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and the Noida Authority began a structural audit of the adjoining buildings.
After 7 pm, residents started returning home. Power and cooking gas lines were reconnected. In the afternoon, a 27-km stretch of the Noida-Greater Noida expressway was closed to traffic for about 30 minutes.
Water sprinklers and anti-smog guns were activated at the site soon after the demolition to help contain the dust, an official said.
The Supreme Court had ordered the demolition on August 31, 2021, upholding a verdict by the Allahabad High Court. It held that illegal construction has to be dealt with strictly to ensure compliance with the rule of law.
"The case has revealed a nefarious complicity of the planning authority in the violation by the developer of the provisions of law," the top court had observed.
.
