KOCHI: The filling of explosives in all the Maradu highrises slated for demolition will be over on Thursday. Barring the ground floor of Alfa Serene A tower, pre-blasting works of other highrises wrapped up on Wednesday. The final inspection before the blasting will be over on Thursday.
“All pre-blasting works, including the removal of all non-load-bearing walls, mechanical equipment, staircases and facades, are over. The explosives are fully loaded with the covering of geotextiles and steel wire mesh,” said R Venugopal, deputy chief of explosives, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (Peso). Peso has asked the firms roped in for the controlled implosion to check all short and long-delayed detonators for continuity by Thursday.
“All the wires have to be checked before charging the holes,” he said. The officials have directed the firms to mark and tape the wires to identify whether the circuit is primary or secondary and avoid accidental discharge of electricity. Each apartment will have two exploders to avoid last-minute glitches.
Quantity of explosives reduced at Alfa Serene
To reduce the fragmentation effect of the implosion, the officials concerned reduced the quantity of explosives fixed for Alfa Serene apartment complex of 400kg to 150kg. “We have increased the number of detonating fuses and reduced the number of emulsion explosives to reduced the shattering of concrete particles,” he said.
Videography from municipality office The entire implosion will be videographed from the terrace of Maradu municipality office with an unmanned camera.