They can be seen from several kilometres away. Two tall towers, shrouded in cloths of black and white. Their end is writ all over their visage.
These two buildings, Apex and Ceyane, built by Supertech Builders in Noida's Sector 93, will be brought down in a controlled implosion at 2.30 pm on Sunday.
The demolition will be the outcome of a Supreme Court ruling last year, which said that the construction violated norms and exposed an unholy nexus with Noida authority.
“We are ready,'' said Utkarsh Mehta, partner, Edifice Engineering, the firm which will conduct the demolitions. The company is specialised in controlled demolitions. It demolished the structures built in violation of coastal zone regulations in Kochi, Kerala a couple of years ago.
The firm has planted 3,500kg of explosives at strategic points on the two towers. These are light explosives, not the heavy duty types used for underground explosions. There will be a lot of sound, much louder than any firecrackers you have heard, but there will be hardly any vibrations. Mehta said that the demolition plan has been worked out over several months, and had been re-checked by a third party in the UK, too.
“The vibrations will be much lower than any of the quakes which hit this zone,” he said.
The 120 kilometres of cloth which shroud the two towers are made of a thickness which will minimise the dust after the explosion. The two surrounding residential societies, Emerald Court in the Supertech complex, and ATS village, an adjacent complex, too, will be shrouded with similar cloth.
Residents of both societies will vacate their homes by the evening of August 27, and won't be allowed back till the authorities give an all clear. It is believed that they can return by Sunday night, if the demolitions go as per plans. The authorities have made place to park the cars of the residents in the Botanical Garden metro parking lot. There are 750 apartments in Emerald Court and 650 in ATS Village.
“We are planning to head to our family home in Mathura for the weekend,” said Ramveer Singh, an elderly resident of Emerald Court, who was picking his grand daughter from the school bus in the afternoon. Other residents, however, are worried. “My apartment in the ATS complex is just a few feet away from the tower. I am not reassured that there will be no damage to my home,” said Harsh Ghansela.
Mehta said that they will deploy a style known as waterfall implosion. In this, the slabs wont fall directly onto each other, but will cascade down. This minimises ground vibrations. However, it will all happen so quickly that the untrained eye will not be able to understand it, unless it is recorded in slow motion on camera. The explosion will take nine seconds. The entire structure may take another six to ten seconds to crumble to the ground. The explosions will be triggered by a team of six, including three police officers, from a spot on the main road leading to these residential complexes. ``Nobody will be allowed in a vicinity of 250 metres from the site,'' said Mehta.
The debris, estimated at 55,000 tonnes, will take months to clear out. It may take 1,200 truckloads to clear the site of the rubble. That is for later, though.
