Noida Twin Tower demolition on August 28; Edifice Engineering to charge buildings with explosives from August 13

The apex court on August 12 accepted the Noida authority's request to extend the demolition date to August 28 while allowing a bandwidth of 7 days until September 4. (PTI)

The Supertech Twin Towers - Apex and Ceyane - in Noida Sector 93A are likely to be demolished on August 28, instead of the August 21 date as set by the Noida authority earlier. The authority has set the date of August 21, keeping in mind a cushion period of one week from the Supreme Court's deadline of August 28.

However, the charging of the buildings with explosives was delayed due to incomplete paperwork as a report from Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) was awaited. The CBRI's report was delayed as Supertech did not share all info with it on time, the institute had informed the Noida Authority in the August 6 meeting.

The Noida Authority filed its status report on demolition preparedness in the Supreme Court on August 11. Now, with all the paperwork in place and the CBRI's nod for charging the building, Edifice Engineering, the company hired by Supertech to carry out the demolition of the nearly 100-metre tall illegal structures. It will start the procedure to charge the twin towers by placing explosives in holes drilled in columns and shear walls, on August 13, sources said.

More than 3500 kg of explosives will be placed in 9462 holes over the next fortnight. The firm will also dismantle the lifts in the twin towers simultaneously. A team of 16 specialists including 6 foreign experts along with 80 on-site labours will be involved in charging the towers.

Also Read: Buyers in Supertech’s Twin Tower in Noida await refunds

Noida CEO Ritu Maheshwari confirmed that the demolition will take place on August 28. "The demolition of the twin towers will take place on August 28. We have also got one week's grace period till September 4 in case of any eventuality," Maheshwari told moneycontrol.

The apex court on August 12 accepted the Noida authority's request to extend the demolition date to August 28 while allowing a bandwidth of 7 days until September 4 on account of technical delay and delay due to weather conditions.

Read More: Pre-demolition work on Noida twin towers complete: Sources

The authority also informed the Supreme Court that certain work prior to demolition has to be completed by August 25.

On the other hand, Edifice Engineering had submitted its report to the Noida authority on August 8 in which it claimed that any further delay in demolition will increase the risk of undesired collapse. "The structure has been pre-weakened at the time of preparation to create the desired fall in the direction anticipated and required, hence any delay in the final blast date, will increase the risk of undesired collapse in any direction which may be occurred due to factors beyond our control and we shall not be held responsible for the same," said the Edifice.

Edifice said in the report that it will be placing vibration-absorbing impact cushion berms on the ground level in the collapse zone to reduce the level of vibration. It also said that it won't be 'blasting the north-eastern walls of the lowest blast floor on level B1 in the north-eastern quadrant near Aster II flats so that the impact of debris is further biased to the south in this area', thus reducing any impact on the nearby building. As many as 10 vibration monitoring devices by IIT Chennai will be deployed to monitor the vibration levels.

A meeting with police and traffic personnel for the exclusions zone, deployment of police staff from the date of charging, evacuation plan and other necessary activities such as a mock drill will be held three days prior to the final day of the blast, said the Edifice.

The twin towers were declared illegal by the Supreme Court on August 31, 2021, and ordered the demolition of the twin towers for violating building norms in “collusion” with Noida officials.