HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will demolish a five-storeyed under-construction building in Madhapur, found to be constructed violating the corporation’s building norms, on Monday.
However, what makes this a rare occasion is the technology being used. For the first time in its history, the civic body will use ‘implosion’ or controlled explosion for bringing down the structure. The civic body’s move, now on a pilot-basis, aims as a deterrent to illegal constructions.
The corporation has decided to implode the illegal structure at 10.30 am on Monday. GHMC officials said that building implosion is the strategic placing of explosive material and timing its detonation so that a structure collapses on itself, within a matter of seconds, minimising physical damage to the surroundings.
At present, it takes days or even weeks to bring down an illegal structure. Implosion is considered the best available way to bring down large structures in urban areas.
All it will take to bring down the illegal five-storeyed structure using implosion is a few seconds.
“Drills, gas cutters and other machinery used for demolition often don’t give desired effect. Recently in Chennai, a 11-storeyed building was demolished within seconds. We are doing it on a pilot basis now,” said a GHMC official.
The eleven-storeyed tower in Chennai’s Kundrathur main road in Moulivakkam was brought down on November 2, 2016. Over there, residents in the surrounding buildings were asked to evacuate till the time of completion of implosion, as a matter of precaution.
Asked about the costs, the official pointed out that using the technology would be expensive compared to manual demolition. On asking whether the corporation will go after all illegal constructions from now, he said the results of the pilot demolition will be crucial. “We can demolish any structure of 2-3 floors and above. In most cases, we find minor deviations from the set norms. We cannot demolish partly unauthorised ones,” he said.
There are as many as 80,000 unauthorised buildings and under-construction buildings in Hyderabad. Also, close to 1,500 dilapidated structures too exist waiting to be demolished as per rules. The corporation has joined hands with a city-based service provider for the pilot demonstration on Monday.