NOIDA: 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 on Sunday. The demolition was conducted by the Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering along with South African experts Jet Demolitions.
It only took nine seconds to transform the pair of buildings, each 100 metres tall, into a mountain of wreckage, but more than seven months had been spent planning its destruction. According to an Edifice Engineering member, the demolition process was carefully carried out with the aid of scientific methods.
“Around 3,700 kg of explosives were placed inside the twin towers. The tower had eleven primary blast floors, while the Ceyane tower had ten main blast floors,” said Anil Joseph, Geo structural chief of Edifice Engineering.
This has been the biggest blast demolition witnessed in the country and the Edifice has had similar experiences in the past when five buildings in Maradu were demolished. He said that the Edifice engineering used the ‘controlled implosion’ to demolish the twin towers, in which the explosives were placed in such a way that damage to the surrounding would be minimal. “In this technique, we delayed the blast at each column and controlled the way it falls, so that no surrounding buildings are damaged,” said Joseph.
The demolition companies controlled the impact of the fall on the ground as “touch down vibration” is one the crucial aspects to note during the process, otherwise the fall may look like a tremor, explained Joseph.
In terms of precaution, we covered the building with thirteen layers of plastic and rubber tyres were placed on the ground to control the vibration of the fall and it was recorded under the permissible range, claimed Joseph.
The preparation has been going on since February and a trial was also conducted in the month of April. The total cost of the blast incurred Rs 20 crore, said the authorities.
WHAT NEXT AFTER DEMOLITION?
Many challenges stare the authorities after the demolition. Here are few of them:
Nearly 100-metre-high towers fell like a pack of cards within 9 seconds
1st challenge now is to clean the mountain of debris generated
An estimated 80,000 tonnes of debris generated
Includes rubble, steel and iron bars
It may take as many as 3 months to clear these
Water sprinklers and anti-smog guns deployed to mitigate dust
Authorities will conduct a safety audit to assess damage caused to nearby societies